Where do bullets go?

[Asgardian]

This is something I was wondering watching some old war aviation movies

You see all this mass formation of bombers heading to Germany to bomb the crap out of it, each bomber has 8 - 10 .5 inch Browning M2/ANs machine guns. Then you see this mass formation of Messerschmitt fighters, each with 2×13 mm MG 131 machine guns and 1×20 mm MG 151/20 cannon coming in to attack the B-29 bombers.

They all start firing at each other like there's no tomorrow.

What happens to those 1,000's of bullets that hit nothing up in the air?

Same question, but a different slant

You see in many middle eastern countries that blokes celebrating fire their AK-47s into the air, what happens to those bullets?

Again same question, but a slightly different scenario

The gunfight at the OK corral, what happens to all those bullets that hit nothing?

I've done a little looking around, found some stuff

"During a surgical tutorial the other day a surgeon who was teaching my group told us that wen he was working in Afghanistan one of the common trauma cases other than land mines was of children hit by falling bullets. Men would stand round firing there AK-47s into the air after some celebration. Up went the bullets and finally they stop accelerating up and start to fall down. Because a bullet is heavy little aerodynamic thing the bullet accelerates back towards earth at a great rate, reaching a terminal velocity much faster than a man or a cat. Its almost the same speed it left the barrel of the gun by the time it has gotten back to earth. And unfortunately some unlucky kid just happens t in the way and it goes through him.

Peter Watson
Medical sutdent
Uni, of Melb"

http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/march2000/

Now to me, that science doesn't sound quite correct, how can the bullet attain "almost the same speed it left the barrel of the gun by the time it has gotten back to earth."?

That doesn't sound correct

So what happens to a bullet fire straight up?

Will it land in the same spot, or will it fall west of where you fired?

"From: Matthew
Where a bullet would fall if you were to fire it straight up in the air on a very still day? My view was that the bullet would already be travelling at the same horizontal velocity as the earth, as would the atmosphere and therefore the bullet would fall to the same point (ignoring any possible cross winds of course). Some workmates thought that the earth would rotate beneath the earth and that the bullet would land to the west of the firing point. Who is correct? Does the atmosphere travel in sync with the earth the whole way up or does it fail to keep up in its outer reaches? If this is the case, would it depend upon how high the bullet went in it's travels up?"

"From: katinka Whitlock
Well, I asked my physics teacher, and he explained that the bullet would land precisely where it was fired from, due to the fact that the atmosphere and earth all travel at the same speed, as if it didn't we'd have one hell of a wind (obviously!!) So therefore it would land where it was fired from."

http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/march2000/

I found some maths, but this isn't my cup of tea

http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~broholm/l5/node4.html

What do youseeeeeeeee peoples reckon?

 

[MF]

I'm pretty sure there was a Mythbusters episode that covered this. From memory I think they found that a bullet falling back to earth was not lethal.

 

[J-Train]

I need a bullet after reading that.

 

[Niximus]

I'm pretty sure there was a Mythbusters episode that covered this. From memory I think they found that a bullet falling back to earth was not lethal.

Partly true, they found that if it went straight up it wasn't BUT it it was on a slight angle it was able to maintain a ballistic trajectory and be very lethal.

 

[bigpapagman]

I need a bullet after reading that.

p-l-u-s


o-n-e

 

[RU486]

In Iraq, after they had won the Asian cup 4 people died of stray bullets.

 

[magtrev]

Now to me, that science doesn't sound quite correct, how can the bullet attain "almost the same speed it left the barrel of the gun by the time it has gotten back to earth."?

That doesn't sound correct

Well, its got a constant force pushing it downwards at 9.8 meters per second per second. The only thing stopping it from falling to earth at the exact speed it left the barrel is drag. If you assume the bullet is fairly aerodynamic and wind drag is not a massive factor, comined with its weight mean it doesn't approach terminal velocity on the way down (I have no idea if this is a valid assumption or not) then what he said is fine.

 

[J-Train]

 

[footyfreak]

"During a surgical tutorial the other day a surgeon who was teaching my group told us that wen he was working in Afghanistan one of the common trauma cases other than land mines was of children hit by falling bullets. Men would stand round firing there AK-47s into the air after some celebration. Up went the bullets and finally they stop accelerating up and start to fall down. Because a bullet is heavy little aerodynamic thing the bullet accelerates back towards earth at a great rate, reaching a terminal velocity much faster than a man or a cat.

how random

 

[drew_j]

A bullet falling at terminal velocity can be lethal, but you'd be unlucky to be hit when you think of the area they would be spread over, the speed of the plane and the chances of a person actually standing under a plane that's in a dogfight.

When a bullet is fired into the air it would come under what's called the Coriolis effect. Which is the frame of reference when one body is on a rotating plane relative to the other. The bullet would have the same hoirizontal velocity relative to the muzzle when it left the barrle so would follow the shooter in part due to the effects of centrifugal force, the shooter on the surface though is also accelerating to the centre of the earth as it rotates so the spot where the bullet lands would not be the same as where it's fired.

 

[magtrev]

The worst thing about the crazy frog is that it completely and utterly ruined the originally hilarous F1 insanity test.

 

[J-Train]

A bullet falling at terminal velocity can be lethal, but you'd be unlucky to be hit when you think of the area they would be spread over, the speed of the plane and the chances of a person actually standing under a plane that's in a dogfight.

When a bullet is fired into the air it would come under what's called the Coriolis effect. Which is the frame of reference when one body is on a rotating plane relative to the other. The bullet would have the same hoirizontal velocity relative to the muzzle when it left the barrle so would follow the shooter in part due to the effects of centrifugal force, the shooter on the surface though is also accelerating to the centre of the earth as it rotates so the spot where the bullet lands would not be the same as where it's fired.

Egghead likes his booky-books.

 

[drew_j]

Egghead likes his booky-books.

Actually, I just like too shoot stuff.

 

[J-Train]

Actually, I just like too shoot stuff.

 

[drew_j]

To think I waited 12 years to finally get supervised net access and all I found was this shitty AFL forum.

 

[likka]

Mythbusters info on falling bullets.

Basically bullets falling straight down from their apex will not kill you, but falling bullets with a ballistic trajectory may kill you depending on the angle of firing.