[time-nuts] How are you going to spend your extra second?

[Robert Darlington]

Bullets falling from the sky are almost never fatal.  Remember, we're
not in a vacuum so there is friction with the atmosphere.  They slow
down on the way up due to both gravity and friction, and then fall
back down reaching a terminal velocity where the bullet is in
equilibrium on the way down (no acceleration).   I've heard of one
case where a bullet falling was fatal when it landed on an infant's
"soft spot" on top of the head where the skull had not yet fused.  One
other recent case where a bullet landed on a lady's shoulder and left
a nice bruise.  I found this descriptive blurb on the net with some
real numbers:

For further insight, we turn to Hatcher's Notebook (1962) by Major
General Julian S. Hatcher, a U.S. Army ordnance expert. Hatcher
described military tests with, among other things, a .30 caliber
bullet weighing .021 pounds. Using a special rig, the testers shot the
bullet straight into the air. It came down bottom (not point) first at
what was later computed to be about 300 feet per second. "With the
[.021 pound] bullet, this corresponds to an energy of 30 foot pounds,"
Hatcher wrote. "Previously, the army had decided that on the average
an energy of 60 foot pounds is required to produce a disabling wound.
Thus, service bullets returning from extreme heights cannot be
considered lethal by this standard."


I for one wouldn't want to be hit by a falling bullet, but I'd sure
take that over one being fired directly at me!

-Bob



On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 10:00 PM, Mark Sims <holrum at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Chuck,
>
> You must not be reading the same papers as me (or live in Dallas)...    Google "dallas new years gunfire" to get 63,900 hits.  The Wikipedia article has an interesting statistic...  bullets falling from the sky are 5-15 times as likely to be fatal as direct gunshot wounds.  A couple of articles to start with:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
>
>
>
> http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2002/12/31/New_Years_Eve_gunfire_may_bring_jail_time/UPI-67071041369090/
>
>
> http://cbs11tv.com/local/Dallas.Police.Warn.2.620823.html
>
>
> ------------
>
> Really?  I would think it would make the papers... but for
> some reason, it doesn't.
>
> -Chuck Harris
>
>
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