They accelerate at a 9.8 meters a second, fast enough for a bullet fired straight up to come through your roof and through your head, too.
2006-12-31 16:03:27 · 13 answers · asked by Child 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Who's that girl down there callin "creepy"?
2006-12-31 16:10:17 · update #1
32 feet per second per second. But air resistance is defeats most of that speed.
2006-12-31 16:09:24 · answer #1 · answered by MrsOcultyThomas 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ummmmm right.
A bullet fired straight up will come to a halt, and begin to accelerate downward. Were it not for air, they would accelerate with enough energy to penetrate a roof and a head.
The truth though is that bullets, after stopping, begin to tumble downward, and encounter resistance from the air, reaching what is called "terminal velocity". Terminal, in this sense does not mean "deadly", but it is merely the velocity at which acceleration by gravity is cancelled by resistance from the air. Basically, with a bullet, this is a couple of hundred feet per second. Though it sounds fast, it will not impart enough energy to cause serious damage to a human, let alone a roof.
There have been incidents reported where a bullet fired into the air has killed individuals, but in these cases, it was not straight up, and the bullet was still acting balistically, carrying energy and rotation from the rifled barrel.
To add perspective, a bullet fired from a rifle barrel can reach velocities of greater than 3000 feet per second. This is much faster than the terminal velocity of say 2-300 feet per second.
By the way... why is this in R&S?
2006-12-31 16:13:37 · answer #2 · answered by Deirdre H 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Falling from where?
Mythbusters did a show on something similar. There is something called terminal velocity that will prevent things from falling to fast (objects from outerspace however have momentum behind them). Even a penny dropped from the Empire State Building will cause a headache (and perhaps require a couple of stitches), but it will not kill you.
A bullet fired into the air, will again give you a headache, but not kill.
2006-12-31 16:08:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but there's a great deal of air friction to compete with. Experiments have shown that they don't accelerate as much on the way down as they did when shot out the first time.
2006-12-31 16:10:29 · answer #4 · answered by eri 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. That's not taking into account air resistance, which can pretty much makes a light, partially melted bullet about as effective at piercing hard objects as you throwing it with your hands.
2006-12-31 16:06:16 · answer #5 · answered by Poo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Revelation 17 tells about it happening in the last days.
2006-12-31 16:08:40 · answer #6 · answered by rhino 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Thats interesting. Many people where I live will shoot many bullits into the sky at midnight.
2006-12-31 16:07:19 · answer #7 · answered by DATA DROID 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go get a heavy cooking pot and put in on your head. Right now.
2006-12-31 16:07:20 · answer #8 · answered by nancy jo 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
err, I assume you mean Gravity (9.81 m/s^2), and yes it makes things fall if nothing is holding it up.
2006-12-31 16:08:42 · answer #9 · answered by Hermes711 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
maybe you outta get out of there
2006-12-31 16:06:14 · answer #10 · answered by rezany 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋