if i shoot a bullet in the air?

Question

will the bullet leave the atmosphere, burn up in the atmosphere, or come back down and nail me if i shoot up exactly straight?

- i saw movies where people shoot up in the air, and i just wanna know waht would happen in real life

Answer 1

Actually, the speed at which the bullet will fall back to the ground won’t really depend on how fast it left the gun. This is because the force of air resistance depends on velocity. As the bullet falls, it speeds up (due to gravity). The faster it goes, the more air resistance it feels. Eventually it reaches a speed at which the force of gravity pushing down on it is equal to the force of air resistance pushing up. When all the forces balance out like this, the bullet stops speeding up - this is called the terminal velocity.

In order to calculate the exact terminal velocity of your bullet, there are a lot of things that you would have to know - such as the weight and shape of the bullet, the wind speed, the altitude, etc. One estimate that I found online is about 300 ft/sec (about 200 mph), which sounds like a reasonable guess.

Answer 2

Bullets do travel at a high rate of speed; however, it is not fast enoough nor does it have enough power to leave the atmosphere. It would be just like throwing a rock straight up; it will, of course, go much higher than if you threw a rock, but the same results. It will come back down.
I have seen those movies wherein people shoot straight up; I have seen it in real life. No one ever seems to get hit. I would think that wind drift would carry it at least a little bit to the side; also, it might appear that a person is shooting straight up, but in actuality is shooting off to one side, causing the bullet to plunge to earth somewhere else.
Me, I would not want to try it; it might hit me! And it would hit with the same force as when it left the muzzle.

Answer 3

Most bullets are made from lead which is quite a heavy material and they will disintegrate upon IMPACT, which means a bullet won't burn up in the atmosphere. When a bullet goes straight up in the air it will eventually come back down as it loses velocity, this is due to gravitational force. Depending on the angle of the shot, depends on where the bullet will land, however it is unlikely that it will fall exactly straight back down..

Answer 4

What goes up, must come down.
The bullet will go up, lose speed, stop, come back down, and gain momentum as it does. When it comes back to earth, it will be doing so at a speed fast enough to do some serious, possibly fatal damage.
If you shoot it straight up , the wind may be a factor in whether or not it comes down to the same point, but, why take a chance??
Shooting a gun straight up into the air is a very dangerous thing to do.

Answer 5

First, a round fired doesn't have enough power or velocity to break the earths atmosphere. Hence, what goes up, must come down. Second, take a couple of other things into consideration. the earth is moving and wind direction. So when the bullet comes back down it might not hit you, BUT, you're possibility of hitting somebody in a busy area is pretty high.

Answer 6

It's going to come down and nail you. Depending upon the exit velocity, it will climb until it has no vertical velocity left, at this point (apogee) the velocity is zero. Then it will accelerate downward
at 32 ft/sec/sec until it reaches it's terminal velocity which is, I'm sure, enough to put a hole in you. It cannot escape the earths gravity unless it has some form of propulsion to create enough velocity to reach the escape velocity of earth.
It will not burn up since the velocity is falling off.

Answer 7

None of the above, assuming we're talking about a typical retail load rifle.

The combination of rifling, gyroscopic precession, atmospheric conditions, and the earth's rotation all add up to a near miss.

BUT

Stuff happens - don't try this one at home or anywhere else.

You'll put your eye out.

Answer 8

The odds of it coming back down and hitting you are about a billion to one, but it does come back down somewhere.
When you took your test to get your firearms permit
there was probably a question about what to shoot at and what not to. Be sure of your target when you squeeze the trigger.
It is not a toy. Aim small, and be responsible.

Answer 9

I suppose it'd come back down, due to the laws of physics. Unless it was fast and a powerful enough gun to launch it out of the atmosphere...

Answer 10

What goes up will come down somewhere ! A gun does not have enough power to escape our atmosphere !