Does a bullet drop to the ground if it doesnt hit anything?

Question

If you shoot a gun and the bullet travels without hitting anything, would it just drop to the ground?

Answer 1

yes
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators4_2_Mech.html

Answer 2

Well, it does not "DROP" to the ground. A bullet is shot at an angle so the trajectory of the bullet is actually an arch, not a straight line. This is because the sight needs to line up with the bullet and obviously you don't aim high if your gun is sighted properly. The arch allows the bullet to line up with the sight.

So the bullet eventually does not "drop" as if I dropped a quarter but instead, the bullets trajectory actually makes the bullet eventually shoot into the ground.

It is like if you throw a baseball, it goes up and then down. If now one catches it the ball will eventually be "thrown" to the ground.

Answer 3

Yes of course, it will accelerate to the ground at 9.8 m/s2 as all objects do on earth, and the horizontal velocity will remain almost constant (if we ignore air resistance which is negligable). So it will gradually (depending on the height at which it was launched from - if you launched it from a cm above the ground then it would curve down very quickly). This curve is the basis for an interesting story: A poacher aims his gun directly at a monkey - now the monkey at the moment he hears the gun fire, drops from the tree and gets shot right in the heart - this is because the bullet and monkey are accelerating to the ground at exactly the same rate because they both experience the same gravitational effect.
If you launch a bullet high enough and fast enough, it will keep curving and falling but never reach the ground because it will always overshoot - and this is being in orbit.

Answer 4

any bullet is gradually dropping to the ground. just like you drop a stone. except that the bullet is very fast on horizontal movement so it travels a lot of distance before it reaches groung, but, get this: if it's shot horizontally, IT WILL REACH THE GROUND IN THE SAME TIME A STONE DROPPED FROM THE SAME HEIGHT WILL REACH THE GROUND.
(That's in theory. In practice, other factors are involved that will modify the result a little: air friction, earth surface curvature, etc. It could even escape the gravity of the earth if the speed is big enough. But that's too much to be explained here and it's practically impossible with current technology)

Answer 5

ofcourse... interesting also... If you drop something from the same height as the gun is fired both will hit the ground at the same time..

Just that the bullet will travel 2000 ft in the time it takes to hit the ground, or that, in the time it take for what you dropped to hit the ground.


Gravity is all the same.

Answer 6

Yes, it would. A bullet is only in the air for the same amount of time as it would if you had just dropped it. The only difference is that it has a lot more velocity, and so travels for a large distance before hitting the Earth.

Answer 7

actually, f42 answer is spot on. you will desire to cut up the action of each and every merchandise into horizontal and vertical. So, a bullet fired forwards, and one dropped rapidly down will the two have different horizontal motions. The bullet fired would have a great horizontal fator, because it is moving speedy. the single dropped rapidly down would have 0 horizontal action (nicely, till the guy dropping it knocks it orward rather). in spite of the undeniable fact that, the two have same vertical motions. the two are being pulled down at precisely a similar fee by gravity. So specific, theoretically, the two will hit the floor on a similar time. specific, it style of feels counter-intuitive, because of the fact the fired bulletis flying forwards, and it is trouble-free to think of that thissomehow "slows" down how right away it drops, yet of direction it does not. the respond to your question - ignoring any community outcomes of climate, bullet shape etc etc - is definite.

Answer 8

The bullet doesn't just come to rest and then drop. If you shoot more-or-less horizontal, the bullet will still be moving forward fairly quickly when it hits the ground, and it could bounce or dig itself in.

If you shoot more upwards, the bullet will be moving downwards when it hits the ground, at about the same angle you shot it upwards, and it will dig in.

Answer 9

Contrary to popular beleif a bullet does not travel in a straight line when fired from a gun, instead it begins a parabolic curve rising slightly above the line of sight before curving towards the earth influenced by gravity.

The basic ballistics page I've linked has further details and helpful graphs for various parabola

Answer 10

Yup - Gravity works. Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) did an awesome show relating to the myth, "if someone shoots a gun into the air, the bullet could kill a person when it comes back to the ground."

They debunked the myth after their study, by the way. I think that they found that the speed upon impact would not be fast enough to instantly kill the unlucky, unintended target. It would, however, cause some damage.

Answer 11

if a bullet is shot into the air and doesn't hit anything, the air resistance gradually slows the bullet to the point where it will drop to the ground