Urban legend?

[Longbow]

A bullet fired straight up in the air has the same velocity going down.... true or not?

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Nope. Velocity out of the barrel is far greater than terminal velocity of a falling object.

 

[repsychler]

Under perfect lab conditions (no wind resistance and other pesky things that happen in the real world) it would be true. But as Hkmp5sd says, the velocity of the falling bullet will top out long before it reaches the muzzle velocity.

 

[gbelleh]

Myth Busted!

 

[MarineTech]

Still........

A bullet coming back down at terminal velocity is nothing to laugh at. It is still travelling fast enough to be lethal if it should hit you.

There are actually a number of fatalities reported each year due to bullets fired up into the air during celebrations.

 

[euclid]

The terminal velocity of a bullet wouldn't come close, even under "perfect" conditions. Period.

cheers

 

[mete]

This subject, with a 30-06, has been researched by the army, see "Hatcher's Notebook". It achieves a terminal velocity ,usually base down that is still lethal.

 

[BigG]

Mete is correct...

Here's a little write up I did on HATCHER'S NOTEBOOK

 

[deleteall]

When Saddam was captured there was a lot of happy fire. Final happy fire count: 8 dead, 80 injured.

 

[JohnKSa]

"perfect conditions" is a bit vague. If a bullet is fired straight upward IN A VACUUM (no air at all) then it will, on it's return trip, pass the muzzle of the gun at exactly the same speed it exited the muzzle.

Air resistance will make sure that can't happen in the real world. Terminal velocity is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300fps.

There are many documented instances of fatalities and serious injuries from descending bullets.

 

[Route666]

Hi, first post here, hope to have a happy stay, I just thought I'd say that under perfect conditions, meaning in a vacuum the velocity of the bullet would the same as the muzzle velocity once it reached the height at which it left it.

 

[antediluvianist]

bullets land at more than mere terminal velocity from a free fall

In my city, people are killed every New Year's Eve by bullets fired into the air to celebrate the New Year.

Bullets are fired at an angle into the air, of course not perfectly vertically. Therefore, the rounds follow a trajectory - do not go straight up, stop, and then accelerate straight down. Hence the rounds strike the ground/people/roofs at much more than mere terminal velocity from a free fall.

Careless shooters/drunks/imbeciles sometimes fire at fairly shallow angles - you can see that from videos taken by newsmen at these scenes of celebratory gunfire into the air. Terrible. The mayor in my city advises all citizens to go indoors half an hour before, and half an hour after, midnight og New Year's, to avoid getting shot.

 

[Carbonator]

A bullet fired straight up in the air has the same velocity going down.... true or not?

True, but only before it reaches terminal velocity of 175mph - after that it is going slower than it did at those points it passed on the way up. Upward speed and accelleration is irrelevant to falling speed for an object moving straight up and down - bullets have no memory - a bullet shot up to 2,000 feet will fall exactly as a bullet dropped from 2,000 feet.

...unless it's a .45 caliber. Then natural laws submit.

 

[BluesBear]

in a word...

A bullet fired straight up in the air has the same velocity going down.... true or not?

NOT !

We have this discussion every couple of months.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51483
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51763
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56820

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

Mind if I ask what city you live in, Antediluvianist? I think I'll make a point of staying as far away from your house as possible on any major holiday.

 

[Stand_Watie]

Dallas has a lot of celebratory gunfire around the holidays.

 

[jsalcedo]

I read a few places that terminal velocity of a falling bullet is around 330FPS

Still enough to wound or kill.