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I have wonder this since I saw an afgan wedding and they were all shooting there guns up in the air. They shot like 1000 rounds and I never saw any falling back down

2006-09-14 00:08:48 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Physics

22 answers

Its like this, bullet with its speed/velocity is thus shooting up in the sky. You do need to take in consideration the other forces acting on that bullet, like air resistance and even the wind. So If we try to imagine that its a free falling body which means we neglect air resistance, the bullet would then travel up and up until its velocity reaches 0m/s. So if we want to be really scientific, we need to know what its initial velocity and also the time or its distance. So if you're serious about trying this experiment or something, try to be careful and stuff.
So back to the problem, what then would happen to the bullet? so while the bullet travels up in neglecting air resistance, it will slowly slow down due to the acceleration due to gravity which is 9.8m/s2. So when the bullet does comes to a stop or reaches a final velocity of 0m/s, then the bullet would then travel downwards now with acceleration due to gravity acting upon it. So the time it takes the bullet to travel to its highest peak, or when it does reach 0m/s. it would also be the time it would take for it to reach the ground.
So now the weird part of this thing is that, when you do shoot a bullet to the sky, when it does fall back to the groud, it would still have that much power just like a normal gun shot if it is perfectly pointed up wards.
So if it was the real world, where we do need to take air resistance and wind, then the bullet falling back to the ground would be like a normal gunshot, but it would then slow a bit down due to air resistance, but do take note (i bet it still hurts). :)
Final reminder, this reason works if the bullet is shot directly upwards, if it does have an angle, then we would then go into projectile, but yeah its still amazing to think that the bullets someone shot up would still be as deadly as a normal gun shot. :)

2006-09-14 01:05:56 · answer #1 · answered by zimpops 2 · 2 0

Provably because the quantity of people who live by square mile isn't that and the open spaces are very common, but in a country like mine that the people who live in a square mile mile is the biggest on the earth and if someone do as you said, believe me the results will be completely differents. In here there's the habit that people shoot a lot in the new year's eve and when that happens at least 10 people got hurt and 3 or 4 die because lost bullets. I remember a lady who went out to say good bye to her son and a bullet killed her on the sidewalk, other case was the one where a 6 years old girl was playing out side and a bullet hit her in the head and she died on her way to the hospital. Like the mentioned ones here are plenty.
When you shoot a bullet to the air it will reach a very nice high depending the power and the quantity of gun powder. When the bullet comes down comes with the twice of speed, pression and friction making it more dangerous than when it came out of the main source. So no shoots to the air.

2006-09-14 00:26:55 · answer #2 · answered by Javy 7 · 0 2

When you shoot a bullet into the air it DOES come back down. Laws of gravity. BUT as a rule it will never come back straight down as for this to happen you would have to shoot the gun perfectly straight up. Most times the guns are at an angle so the bullet goes up and comes back down at an angle so it will land some distance away. YES someone can get hurt if not killed by doing this.

2006-09-14 00:23:39 · answer #3 · answered by GRUMPY 7 · 1 0

If u didnt c any of the bullets land its probably because they wer shot out at an angle. This means the bullets would -no doubt- have to land somewhere else...other than where that wedding took place. I dont think the bullets should be harmful on their way back down because they (hopefully) would have lost all their energy. And since they aren't massive objects, their low inertia should make their fall relatively harmless to anyone in their "fall path"...I know such a person will definately feel the fall though...but the impact should not inflict any damage.

2006-09-14 00:19:00 · answer #4 · answered by Fulani Filot 3 · 1 0

Having a gun aimed up at a perfect 90 degrees from the earth in order to have it fall in your area is rare. Because of the velocity and the long distance bullets travel, even a few degrees off, the bullet will land hundreds of yards away. Look at it this way, how many times has a bird flying over, hit you with it's gift. There are alot more birds than bullets.

2006-09-14 00:20:58 · answer #5 · answered by voncaros 2 · 1 0

If the are shot straight up and there is no wind, they will come straight back down again in the same spot. However, people shooting guns in the air rarely hold them completely verticle and hence the bullet comes down some distance away. People have been killed by falling bullets in this manner.

Was it a shotgun wedding or something?

2006-09-14 00:15:32 · answer #6 · answered by uselessadvice 4 · 3 1

i came from crete where shooting in wedding and celebrations is a must.
now as far as the pgysics of it are concerned there a debate in deed. it should fall on our heads. the spinning of the earth has nothing to do with it since the bullet HAD this initial velocity in this vector since the pistol had this velocity since all of as actually spin and travle at hug velocities as a part o the earth.

BUT, it is not an iddela world and bullets expirience the wind friction more therefore the should land somewhere behind you after a long of time (relating to the spinning of the earth)

please also consider that it is extrememley rare to shoot 100% verticaly ( some angle is always present) and do not neglect the effect of wind current.

2006-09-14 00:22:27 · answer #7 · answered by Emmanuel P 3 · 1 0

it's difficult to fire a gun directly "up" (it's an awkward position to adopt), so the bullets generally travel in an arc, which would account for them, a) not hitting you on the head, to your great displeasure, and, b) being difficult to find (they're little things, too). if fired directly up, and falling directly down, the bullet isn't likely to cause death. fired at an arc, however slight, though (and, again, this is what usually happens), allows the bullet to travel faster than mere terminal velocity, and, thereby, kill. don't shoot guns off into the air.

"Occasionally the MythBusters will give more than one designation to a myth. In "Bullets Fired Up", for example, they tested if a bullet fired straight up can fall and kill the shooter or innocent bystanders. They gave the myth all three designations: "Busted", "Plausible", and "Confirmed". This urban legend was "Busted", because bullets fired straight up will tumble to the ground at a non-lethal velocity; "Plausible", because a shooter is much more likely to fire at a slight angle, wherein the bullet will maintain its ballistic trajectory and be potentially lethal when it comes back down; and "Confirmed", because there are many eyewitness accounts of falling bullets killing people. In fact, many municipalities have laws explicitly prohibiting firing weapons into the air for that reason."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters

2006-09-14 00:17:27 · answer #8 · answered by altgrave 4 · 1 1

It lands, somewhere, and hopefully not on top of someone. There's lots of debate about whether people and animals can die from falling bullets, "Mythbusters" even did a segment on it. There have supposedly been some actual cases of people getting hit in the head and dying, but mostly it looks like you would just get a bad headache. If undeterred, the bullet(s) sinks into the ground a few inches.

I myself, would be nervous of any wedding where live gunfire erupted in ANY direction. Can't people just fire off fireworks instead? Just as noisy, and potentially less lethal!

2006-09-14 00:09:48 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5 1

They slow down as they go up, the breeze tends to push them aside and eventually they start to fall . A spent round can inflict wounds or be lethal well over a mile away .

2006-09-14 00:25:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

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