bullets
rallain | October 4, 2009There were a couple of things that bothered me about the MythBusters' myth where they fired bullets in the air. The myth was that a bullet fired in the air could kill you. The first problem is that it is not a myth. There are several reported cases of people being killed from bullets that were fired in the air. The Mythbusters tested this by finding out how fast a bullet would be going if fired straight up. A couple of problems:
First, they measured the terminal velocity of a tumbling bullet, not a spinning one. I really don't know how long a bullet will stay spinning, but I guess this…
rallain | September 23, 2009You know I like the Mythbusters, right? Well, I have been meaning to look at the shooting bullets in the air myth for quite some time. Now is that time. If you didn't catch that particular episode, the MythBusters wanted to see how dangerous it was to shoot a bullet straight up in the air.
I am not going to shoot any guns, or even drop bullets - that is for the MythBusters. What I will do instead is make a numerical calculation of the motion of a bullet shot into the air. Here is what Adam said about the bullets:
A .30-06 cartridge will go 10,000 feet high and take 58 seconds to come…