Cops and loud music draws gunfire at campground

skipro3 wrote:

frankdamp wrote:
When a gun is fired "into the air", the projectile climbs to several thousand feet to where gravity overcomes momentum. At that point, said projectile starts back towards earth, gathering speed as it does so.

By the time it reaches the ground it's going about 75% of the speed at which it left the gun's muzzle. Who knows what it will hit? Certainly the dumb-butt who fired "harmlessly" into the air didn't understand the dynamics involved, but he'd be responsible for whatever mayhem the bullet caused.

That is SO not true!
A bullet fired at many times the speed of sound, say 1000m/s will not break the sound barrier, 300m/s after reaching it's terminal speed falling back to earth.

It is rather obvious that the bullet will land at a lower velocity - simple conservation of energy, and second law of thermodynamics.

Mythbusters even did a show on this and proved a typical bullet falls back to earth at about 100mph. In order to prove this, they dropped a bullet into a vertical wind tunnel. The wind had to be at 100mph in order to suspend the bullet in the air. Hence, a bullet will fall at 100mph. Now, will a bullet falling at 100mph (150feet per second) kill or even harm anyone? Mythbusters shot a bullet at 100mph, 150fps, measured with a chronograph, into a pig's head. (From a butcher's not a live pig) The bullet didn't even break the skin.

:h

Here's a new busted myth for you then. At a New Year's Eve celebration in our town a few years ago a man did just that - fired a gun into the air. The bullet came down onto and into a little girl's head - she died.