Page 1 of Does a Tripoli bullet fired into the air hit the ground somewhere ?

A question asked by my wife when a lot of joyous Libians were firing their guns into the air today on the news. I do not know the answer.

Where do these bullets go, I mean surly they have to come down somewhere.

If fired straight up, do they come straight down ?

Do they still have the force in them to kill some poor unsuspecting sod on the ground?

Just wondering considering the thousands of bullets getting fired into the air

that was mentioned on QI, but I can`t remember the answer :( I think not as they go up, lose their momentum, and fall down. Probably could in a freak accident.


http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9401967776/m/79319338801

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd August 2011, 20:58

BBC News answered this exact question a few days ago. They obviously have to come down. And they can and often do kill.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14616491

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd August 2011, 21:09

when they are fired, they have propulsion. when they come back down again, they`re just affected by gravity, however, if they enter a parabolic arch at the height of their climb, it`s possible they`ll fall `pointy end down`. They don`t have to achieve penetration to kill, just hitting the wrong spot on a child`s skull will be enough

But hey, they want to show they`re men in front of the worlds` media

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This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd August 2011, 22:45

That`s the main reason never to attend a wedding in Pakistan.

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that and the drone attacks :0

On the news tonight they are talking about being wary of snipers in action. I bet its just those celebratory bullets coming back down to earth !

I`m sure when they covered this on QI the answer was they don`t kill anyone, but they might hurt. They just lack the velocity, since whilst gravity would accelerate their speed, the air resistance (and the fact they don`t have wings, so would spin causing even more drag) prevents a life threatening velocity.

More info on the QI forum here:
http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=671156



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Much as I love Mr Fry and his merry band they aren`t necessarily right on all things.
Quite a good round up of the how fast and how deadly of it in this article.

Suffice to say I won`t be volunteering to stand underneath one any time soon.

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I recall the Mythbusters doing this question by firing fifty rounds of various calibre into the air above the Mojave desert.  In all the tests they did, they concluded that any standard round (9mm, rifle bullet) etc having been fired vertically upward would not have the mass or velocity to cause a lethal injury falling back to earth under the force of gravity.  The same could not be said for larger ordnance.

However, that was for a bullet fired straight up in the air.  A bullet fired at a lower angle would follow a parabolic trajectory and could easily be travelling at lethal velocity.

Mind you, a lead bullet dropping out of the sky on to your noggin is still going to make you go "Ow, WTF??"

UPDATE: Rob, the QI forum you pointed to includes a couple of stories and observations about lethality of bullets returning to earth.  Apparently a shot only has to be 2 degrees off the perfect vertical to execute a parabolic trajectory and thus be lethal.  As I don`t see any of those trigger-happy cretins on the news using spirit levels before letting off their penile substitutes, I reckon a good few shots must be well off the perfectly vertical.

J Mark Oates

This item was edited on Thursday, 25th August 2011, 03:00