Thursday, April 21, 2011

Gun Control: Momentum

Photo by Phillip C.
There has always been the rumor of bullets falling from the sky. That is, another person shooting a bullet in the air at a high angle (say, 45 degrees) and the bullet coming down miles away and landing on some poor, unsuspecting soul. The major point of this discussion, though, is would that bullet kill someone? We can find this using the theory of momentum and a little bit of research. The impact time of the bullet would be roughly.0014 seconds, and do some research on the forces it would take to kill a person, preferably by hitting their skull.

Take this situation: There is a young boy gun hunting on earth. He is hunting with a 9mm handgun. He decides to be irresponsible, lifts his gun 3 meters off of the ground, and fires two shots: one straight in the air, and one at a 45 degree angle. The bullet's massis 7.45 grams and it has an initial velocity of 366 m/s. The terminal velocity, or the maximum speed a bullet can travel, is about 166 ft/s. Assuming that the acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, would any of these bullets have the force necessary to kill a human? Calculate please, don't assume.




Posted by Gorudu93 at 9:47 AM

17 comments:

  1. rayneApril 26, 2011 at 12:13 PM

    yes, the bullet shot up in the air straight up would. it would gain more speed then the one shot in the 45 degree angle

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  2. Mrs.ClauseApril 27, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    The bullet shot straight up into the air would have enough momentum to no doubtlly kill someone. And the man in the picture is shooting a shotgun that shoots shells not bullets, the bb's inside the shell most likely wouldnt kill someone if shot straight up. However anythingispossible and guns should not be shot into the air...unless at a target and safe to do so.

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  3. Mrs.clauseApril 27, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    I would like to revise my statement and say that a bullet shot straight up would not have kill someone...the chances of the bullet hitting them is slim but it wouldnt kill them either way.

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  4. rudolfthewarlockApril 27, 2011 at 9:16 AM

    A falling bullet could kill a person, when it is falling back down to the ground it picks up the same amount of momentum as it had when it left the barrel.

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  5. Captain JackApril 27, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    The bullet shot straight up would not be fatal. A recent study done by the Military determined that the minimum force needed to produce a "disabling" wound is 60 foot pounds. A .30 Caliber bullet, weighing .021 pounds,was shot straight up into the sky. The bullet was clocked with a speed coming down to the Earth of 300 feet per second. This gave the bullet a force of 30 foot pounds. Not enough to be disabling, let alone fatal. And given the .30 cal bullet is much larger than a 9 mm. The same test was performed by the Mythbusters, and they too found the same answer, the bullets don't fall straight point down, the fall either sideways, or on the butt end of the bullet. Shooting a bullet straight up is not fatal, there isn't a high enough terminal velocity of the bullet.

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  6. Gorudu93April 27, 2011 at 9:42 AM

    For some previous posters, remember that there is air resistance to consider! Rayne, thanks for commenting but a little more elaboration is needed.

    Captain Jack, that's some great information... If you could post your source that would be fantastic so the rest of us can look into it a little deeper. But overall a very interesting read.

    Thanks for all your comments!

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  7. alphadogApril 27, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    I think that another way you can look at this sinerio is with logic. It is clear to me that Mythbusters were right when they did their test of shooting a bullet at 90 degrees in the air wouldn't kill someone because air resistance would restrict the bullet to terminal velocity to where it couldn't kill someone. Opposed to the most obvious out come when a gun is pointed at 0 degrees and shot at someone. In other words very deadly. Perhaps the sinerio is a variable of the angle between the gun and the ground. The greater the angle or closer to 90 the less deadly it is. Also anouther aspect of the sinerio I feel was overlooked or assumed was that the subject was struck in the head a shot to the torso could as well kill the subject.

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  8. AinApril 28, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    what is the force need by the bullet to actually kill the human it hit? doesn't that play role in solving this?

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  9. rudolfthewarlockApril 28, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    Whether or not it kills someone, I wouldn't want to get hit by it.

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  10. peateargriffinApril 29, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    i agree with Rudolfthewarlock, the one they call YalePhysics taught me that something that is launched in the air at any degree will have the same speed going down. so am going to say it could be fatal.

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  11. sciencegeek101May 2, 2011 at 9:02 AM

    The bullet would kill someone. Whatever goes up, must come down. It has the same momentum as it does when it was going up.

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  12. passwordMay 2, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    i agree with science geek the bullet would kill someone. it would gain enough speed to go threw someone.

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  13. nerdmanMay 3, 2011 at 7:54 AM

    the bb's or bullets would be deadly because they would have the same momentum coming back down to earth as they did going into the air...or am i wrong ?!

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  14. NibzMay 5, 2011 at 10:27 AM

    The bullets would have the same speed coming down... nerdman!

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  15. SNICKERSMay 7, 2011 at 10:02 AM

    A bullet falling from the sky would kill someone, it gains speed as it's falling from the height of its shot down to the surface.

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  16. Nero DarkstarMay 16, 2011 at 3:57 PM

    the bullet that was shot straight up could be fatal. as it is shot straight up and comes straight down it will gain more speed and could strike and possibly kill someone rather then the one that is shot at 45 degrees because that is shot on an angle and wont gain more speed on its way down, although it could be harmful, it wouldnt be fatal.

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  17. Brian BearssJune 1, 2011 at 2:09 PM

    Thanks to all who commented on this post!

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