Assaulted by a paint ball gun... - Page 3

If some kid shot me with a paintball gun I think I'd freak out. I would be off my bike and curb stomping him before he could even think to run.

You see, there is SOME justice, SOMEtimes. I just hope the ones that fired at the original poster of this thread have the same thing happen to them.

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I Carry a knife everywhere I go, but I don't think I could throw it far enough to hit the paintballer

Wrong. A bullet is only going to fall between 150-200fps, or roughly the speed of the paintball gun.

A bullet shot at an angle where it maintains is ballistic trajectory will continue to spin, and still is viable. A bullet fired straight up, however, will tumble during its descent.

So you'd be prepared to stand under a bullet dropped from, say, 1000 metres and let it hit you on the top of the head?

See how wrong I am. LOL.

Foot pounds my man.

Actually, its only going to take roughly 150 meters for it to reach terminal velocity. I dont know why you want to drop it from 1000. The worst its probably going to do is put a lump on your skin and maybe break it. Its definitely not going to penetrate the bone though.

If you want to go see how wrong you are, go ahead. LOL.

When you call someone wrong its a good idea to know what you are talking about when you do it.

Your minor flesh wound might be for a rhinoceros wearing a flak jacket.

The projectile is likely to be close to terminal speed at about 250 metres. The thousand is a typical altitude reached by a small calibre bullet. 1000 metres would also give you time to line it up, you do seem a little slow.

Feel free to do a little research before your next tirade if you are not brave enought to test it for yourself. You might not be so keen to get that little "lump on the skin".

You could start by finding a reaslistic figure for the terminal velocity.

Considering I did ballistics when I was a Marine, Im going to tell you, youre still wrong. A 9mm handgun load, at terminal velocity, is only around 150 m/s. And because you have no understanding of physics, Im going to explain this to you. It doesnt matter if its 250 meters or 1000 meters, because, based on physics, terminal velocity is reached after 250 meters. You know, gravity pulls things towards the earth at 32 ft/second until they reach terminal velocity?

You also forget that, a bullet fired straight up WILL NOT be spinning when it starts its descent, because it loses its balllistic trajectory. Instead, it will be tumbling on its side. It doesnt matter if its a .22 or a .50BMG, it still tumbles.

So, to wrap up, YOU might want to do a little research, and find some realistic figures, before you start barking up the wrong tree, AGAIN. And, you might want to heed your own advice in your first statement. I know what Im talking about, because I did this for years. You, on the other hand, do not.

Just in case youre still not convinced though, here is the FAQ from the author of "How bullets fly"

http://www.nennstiel-ruprecht.de/bullfly/faq.htm#Q13


Q: If a bullet is fired vertically from a rifle, what will its terminal velocity be if it strikes the top of someones head on its way back down?

A: This question is hard to answer in general. The best I can give is a "worst-case" estimation.
When a gun is fired vertically, the bullet after some time reaches a summit where the velocity is zero, and then falls back. The bullet will fall back base first which is hard to calculate. I can estimate the velocity if it would fall nose first, that is the normal flying position for which drag is well known - so the real terminal velocity will actually be smaller than the following prediction.

• For a .22 lr bullet (m=40 grain, v0 = 1150 ft/s)
  the summit will be at 1164 ft, the total flight time 30 seconds and the terminal velocity 270 ft/s

• For a SS109 military bullet (m= 55 grain, v0=3200 ft/s)
  the summit will be at 2650 ft, the total flight time 44 seconds and the terminal velocity 404 ft/s.
  For this bullet are indications that it will become unstable. This will further reduce summit height and terminal velocity considerably.

Class is concluded for today. Any other questions?

So you admit you were wrong about the terminal speed being 150-200f/s and now you agree with me that terminal speed is reached at about 250 m you should also read this:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...2171.Ph.r.html

and

http://www.villman.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1087

or do your own search using terminal velocity bullet.

You were even wrong about the spin. 36% retained at the top of trajectory.

So if you did have something to do with ballistics you mustn't have been very good at it.

In summary, of all the websites I've checked, only one cast doubt on the ability of a falling bullet to kill. The rest confirmed the possibility,

As for basic physics, I would suggest any limitations I have are more than made up for my ability to apply logic (although I did study Physics at University)

At this stage you are wrong on several counts. Now are you still willing to have a bullet fall on your head at terminal velocity? Something like a .38? Looks like the joke's on you

Actually, Im still right. Notice the weight of the bullets. Do you even know what weight a 9mm bullet is? No? 147gr. That 55 gr military load is falling at 404 ft/s, or probably about 125 m/s. Have you ever seen how fast a paintball is moving when it exits the barrel? Its actually about the same.

Youre also wrong about the spin. The spin is based on amount of twist of the firearm, so you cannot state that figure with any amount of certainty. Its just not possible.

Im well aware of the physics involved with this, and I conducted several studies on ballistics in different types of materials while I was in the Marines. You are a civilian, with a web browser and a "think you know it all" attitude.

It is YOU who are wrong on more than one account here. If you actually read any of those websites that "confirm" the ability of a falling bullet to kill, you would also read that the bullet tumbles due to wind resistance and loses its ballistic trajectory. The worse thats going to happen is a little broken skin, hardly skull penetration in order to cause death.

Youre barking up the wrong tree...

Rob is 100% right. There are a lot of things you have to think about here. How long it takes to reach terminal velocity is really not one of them because the bullet is going to be high enough to reach it on the way down anyway. I don't care if it is 2 inches above your head before it hits you, terminal velocity has still be reached. So please stop talking about that point.

Also, you HAVE to consider what kind of bullet has been fired. Why? Like Rob said the weight is a factor. Also, wind resistance plays a role as well thus slowing the bullet down a bit. Also, the fact that the bullet will probably end up falling butt end first will add resistance. So size of the bullet matters as well. If you want to get technical the weather plays a role as well. For example if it is raining it will be hitting the rain (and other things) which will also slow it down.

Stop your bitching though. Here is the bottom line. Will a bullet kill you on the way down? Sure it 100% could. Is it likely to happen? No. Why? It would have to hit you someplace where you were pretty vulnerable to penetration. Take for example your ass, which is where most of the posts in this thread should be put.

Bottom line - Rob is the most right. Everyone else is either wrong or partially right.

Whew

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/homework/s95523.htm
Dr Karl's Homework - Bullets Fired Up (26/1/2000)http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a950414b.html
The Straight Dope: Can a bullet fired into the air kill someone when it comes down?http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdat...006_01_03.html
NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updateshttp://www.loadammo.com/Topics/March01.htm
Topic of the Month

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You might actually want to try doing some research, and know what youre talking about before you start randomly posting links. The very first one flys in the face of science. The second one proves my point. The third one further proves my point on ballistic trajectory. Read about where the bullet entered and lodged. It would be pretty hard to do that if it was fired straight up.


But, Im sure you, like mitosis, are another ballistics expert, right?