Gun-loving India 'god-woman' shoots wedding guests

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38013000

Gun-loving India 'god-woman' shoots wedding guests



(continued, like you do....like you do.)

[Scot Dutchy]

Once again click-bait. She did not shoot any.one but the simple law of gravity was evoked; what goes up must come down especially when it is a bullet

[cronus]

Once again click-bait. She did not shoot any.one but the simple law of gravity was evoked; what goes up must come down especially when it is a bullet

Click-bait or not this is a good story. If I wanted facts I'd be reading a book.

[JimC]

The difference in kinetic energy between the returning bullet and when it left the gun is an excellent measure of energy lost to air friction.

[cronus]

The difference in kinetic energy between the returning bullet and when it left the gun is an excellent measure of energy lost to air friction.

Depends on the angle the gun was at when she was firing it? These might not have been returning bullets? rather outward bound strays in a enclosed space?

[JimC]

The difference in kinetic energy between the returning bullet and when it left the gun is an excellent measure of energy lost to air friction.

Depends on the angle the gun was at when she was firing it? These might not have been returning bullets? rather outward bound strays in a enclosed space?

The part I've colourised is rational. The rest is not.

In answer to your rational question (always a welcome surprise...), the angle is irrelevant ; the difference in kinetic energy (given equal heights) represents the energy lost to air friction.

[Feck]

I think Mythbusters has done the bullet falling Myth A falling bullet is very very unlikely to kill but random rounds fired by fucking morons do kill people .

[Brian Peacock]

...and you don't even have to be a moron neither.

[Hermit]

...and you don't even have to be a moron neither.

Non-morons eschew the use of random rounds.

[laklak]

In answer to your rational question (always a welcome surprise...), the angle is irrelevant ; the difference in kinetic energy (given equal heights) represents the energy lost to air friction.

Yeah, once it reaches the top of it's ballistic arc the only factors are air resistance and gravity. However, according to this article a round fired at an angle may have a higher terminal velocity than one fired almost straight up, because it is less likely to tumble. When fired straight up the projectile actually comes to a complete stop and then falls, resulting in tumbling that increases air friction.

http://forensicoutreach.com/library/the ... -velocity/

Terminal velocity of a 30-06 round is between 300-700 fps, which is certainly fast enough to do a bit of damage.

[Alan B]

If the shotgun in question is the gun she is holding in the picture it looks like it's a fucking 12-bore shotgun. It has to be specially adapted to fire solid rounds and the bullet has to designed to fire through a choked barrel. And then it could only fire two before reloading.
She is also said to have fired a handgun in the air... Doesn't say what size. Can't imagine falling bullet killing someone. I reckon one of her followers got a bit stupid.

[Seth]

I think Mythbusters has done the bullet falling Myth A falling bullet is very very unlikely to kill but random rounds fired by fucking morons do kill people .

Correct. A falling bullet that has accelerated to terminal velocity due to gravity can be dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as a bullet with velocity remaining from being fired. I don't know exactly what terminal velocity would be for a bullet, but it's certainly far less than it is for an in-flight bullet. One could do the math if one cared to do so.

One of the most common warnings seen on .22 rimfire ammunition is that it may be lethal at a distance of one mile.

One can use a ballistics program to calculate the velocity of a bullet at any range from the muzzle, but bullet drop is also important as the ballistic curve limits how far a round can travel before striking the ground. At some point however, given a bullet fired in free space, velocity will decay to zero and the only remaining velocity at impact would be that velocity imparted by gravity, which depends on the height above the surface when muzzle velocity decays to zero.

A .50 BMG round weighing 750 grains is certainly lethal out to five miles or so.

[Hermit]

The Falling Bullet: Myths, Legends and Terminal Velocity

[Seth]

The Falling Bullet: Myths, Legends and Terminal Velocity

Ok article.

He calculated that .30 caliber rounds will reach terminal velocities of 300 feet per second (90 m/s) on descent, and determined that, while most bullets will leave a small dent in the ground when they land, that same bullet travelling between 200 to 330 feet per second can still penetrate human skin. The experience of many hospitalized and killed innocents validate his conclusions.

The real issue is not velocity but kinetic energy, which relates to bullet weight, velocity and orientation of the bullet on impact, According to NATO.

Thus a 750 grain 50BMG round falling point-down at gravatic terminal velocity may well be fatal if it hits the head, a .22 bullet tumbling through the air isn't likely to be fatal or even harmful.

[mistermack]

The main reason that smaller bullets are unlikely to cause harm is down to the way that surface area increases with size. As things get bigger the weight increases far faster than the surface area. So if you had two perfect spheres of lead of different sizes, and dropped them from a height, the big one would fall faster because the drag would be less in relation to it's mass.