In case you were wondering...

Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
1,776
Likes
243
Location
Reading, MA
Feedback: 17 / 0 / 0
Talk about being in the wrong place at the very wrong time. If she stayed at party 5 extra mins ect.... What a tool. I own a ton of civil war muzzle loaders that I shoot regularly. Not once have I ever left one loaded when not in use, and if I had I would certainly not leave a percussion cap on it
 
It is really dumb to fire in the air, it is power stupid to fire at the angle required to accomplish that.

Straight up likely would not have hurt anyone. This idiot had to have aimed for the horizon...
 
Didn't Mythbusters do an episode or segment on this a few seasons ago?

They tested firing straight up out of a handgun. They found that the bullet lost its stability and just fell to the ground at terminal velocity. Obviously this guy had the gun at an angle since the bullet traveled over a mile away, and it retained enough stability and velocity to kill the unfortunate girl.
 
They tested firing straight up out of a handgun. They found that the bullet lost its stability and just fell to the ground at terminal velocity. Obviously this guy had the gun at an angle since the bullet traveled over a mile away, and it retained enough stability and velocity to kill the unfortunate girl.
It is not about stability, it is about first year physics (vectors and f=ma) and exhausting the energy required to oppose gravity... Firing straight up the horizontal component of the vector is near zero, so the bullet goes up until it runs out of energy to fight gravity, then falls as if dropped from that height.

Firing outward 1/2 or more of the energy (depending on the angle) is now in the horizontal component of the force vector. Only the friction of the air slows the bullet's horizontal force, while gravity operates on the vertical component.
 
Back
Top Bottom