If u shot a gun straight up?

Question

can it kill someone????

when it falls back down will it hurt someone...

or is it when you shot to an angle?

tryinh to prove point...to someone

thanks

Answer 1

not if u wear a helmet

Answer 2

Mythbusters covered this one, the problem is you have to shoot it exactly straight up, the slightest angle and the outcome will be different.  If the barrel is pointed straight up, at exactly 90 degrees from horizontal, the bullet will only have one velocity vector and that is straight up as well. Once the bullet reaches it's maximum height, it will in fact reach 0 velocity.  Here's the kicker, it has been shown on that show that bullet on a free fall will never fall pointy end first.  So the terminal velocity of the bullet while tumbling around in the air is rather low.

Now the problem is, when you're shooting a gun, it's rather hard to point the barrel exactly at 90 degrees.  Most people who fire guns in celebration will hold it at an angle other than exactly 90 degrees, the bullet will maintain some of it's horizontal velocity and come down following it's ballistic trajectory instead of doing a free fall.

Answer 3

from my understanding it wouldn't kill them.

reason.

the bullet uses all of it's energy to go fly through the air, so when it starts to fall all of that, lets call it "killing energy" is gone so all that would be making it fall is gravity so it would be like dropping a quarter or anything else from whatever height the bullet start to fall from.

Answer 4

i believe it can kill regardless if shot straight up or on an angle, it was on the news in detroit, people were celebrating and shooting guns and the bullets came through the roof and the ceiling of a ladies house.  i believe the equation for force of a moving object falling in the air is F=MG, so i draw this, mass is probably .1 ounce, gravity is rated at 9.81m/ps squared.  so i believe the idea is a bullet weighing .1 ounces falling from 2500 feet up, exerts 250 pounds of pressure, i believe that is enough to kill someone, but hey, what do i know?

Answer 5

Its hard to believe if i shot a high powered rifle in the air and the bullet then fell from a mile up hit me or someone else in the top of the skull that it wouldn't penetreate the skull and potentialy kill me or someone.

Its very, very unlikley it would hit me or someone anyway.

Answer 6

mythbusters proves that myth wrong dont believe me go to youtube

Answer 7

if you shot straight up ... it would hurt if it hit you on the way down ... but that's about it.

Answer 8

no  myth busters proved it  won't   . An if you throw a coin off a skyscraper  it also won't  kill any one . Bro did it with a shot gun with buck shot .

Answer 9

Unlikely to kill since it is just kinetic energy when it starts to fall. However, the surface area of a bullet is quite small, and if it was somehow able to turn at the top of its flight and come down with the pointed end toward you, it would have a fairly high amount of pressure over a very small surface, which could penetrate tissue and possible kill you.

If shot more or less horizontally, the bullet doesn't lose much of its speed and can be fatal.