people often shoot guns in the air (esp in movies), do the bullets ever come back down and hit someone??

Question

the bullets gotta come back down somewhere eventually

Answer 1

they might hit someone, someone might een get seriously hurt, but the impact of the bullet will be a lot less

consider the shape of a bullet. it's designed to be aerodynamic. but its only aerodynamic if the head is facing forward.

To be sure that the head is facing forward throughout its flight, the bullet is given a rotation when lauched from the gun. because of the rotation, the bullet wont get on its side during the flight.
(like a frisbee actully, which also is stable because it turns around its axis, or a basketball rotating on your finger will be a lot easier to balance then one that is still)

Now, you want to fire a bullet upwards. when the bullet is at its maximum height, the speed is 0 and the rotation speed will also be 0. thus the bullet will no longer be aerodynamic, and it lands on its side.

This is why the bullet will lose a lot of its speed, even though the landing speed should be the same as the launch speed. it is the friction with air that slows it down

Answer 2

Ever see that show "Mythbusters?" They showed that if fired straight up, the bullets come back down with a lot less power than they come out of a gun. Like throwing a small rock and letting it hit you.

The few examples of people being seriously hurt involve guns fired at an angle so the bullet continues in a ballistic arc, instead of slowing to a stop then falling back.

Answer 3

sure and NO. in case you hearth rapidly up so as that gravity reasons it to lose speed, then while it stops increasing, while it falls, it falls as the different merchandise. it is going to ultimately attain terminal speed, the place the friction with the aid of air acts like a brake so it in simple terms would not fall any quicker, which then relies upon on the easily length of the bullet. The extra frontal section according to unit mass, the decrease the terminal speed. Mythbusters did this, and located that a falling bullet, falling with the help of utilising the impression of gravity would not carry adequate kinetic power to kill you. injury you, sure, kill you, NO. A falling bullet by utilising gravity on my own can't penetrate the bone of the cranium of a healthful grownup, yet you will possibly choose stitches to close the wound and function a monster headache in the morning. the bigger the common, the bigger the bullet, the extra it is going to injury and there is not any distinction between a falling bullet and a falling pebble. Now, no count if this is a bullet fired at something different than vertical, then there's a speed ingredient that would not pass to 0 because of the fact the vertical bullet does while it starts to fall. That further horizontal speed interprets to further kinetic power, which further to the consequence of gravity could desire to be adequate to kill you. The kinetic power will develop the decrease the arc the bullet makes, meaning fired parallel to the floor has the main power from the powder and the least from gravity and could probably kill you. this is thoroughly variable from flat and point and maximum deadly to thoroughly vertical and least deadly. someplace from point to vertical is the place it differences the completed power adequate to pass from deadly the non-deadly. the final ingredient is, a falling bullet flutters, very similar to a leaf which interprets to even slower terminal speed. this is the spinning of the bullet protecting it streamlined which makes it extra deadly than the falling bullet traveling on the comparable speed.

Answer 4

Yes this happens every 4th of July somewhere in California where someone gets hurt or killed by the bullets falling back down to Earth.

Answer 5

Yes here in Jacksonville Fl some one was killed by a falling bullet. And the person that shot the gun off was caught I believe.
3rd degree manslaughter was filed.

Answer 6

Yes ,they may hit someone and there is probably civil documentation where they have.
In warfare soldiers on the ground are often hit by gunfire fired as a barrage high over obstacles and even over hills and ridges.

Answer 7

uyes the bullet normally comes down because the law of gravity say that anything that goes up much come down. but here , the bullet coming down has lost its force thereby coming down with a low speed.

Answer 8

in movies it's probably not real. in real life, people are killed if the bullet comes down and hits them. the chance that the will hit someone is fairly low though.

Answer 9

This is possible, though it is not very likely. The bullets do fall back to Earth, but not at high speeds, so they are not lethal.

Answer 10

Movie bullets don't ... so take the hint and carry a magazine of blanks for celebrations ... lol