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azdiver 0
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Perhaps Dr. Kallend could answer, but I don't think it's POSSIBLE to shoot a projectile STRAIGHT up...what with the planet spinning and all!
I know you can't draw a PERFECT circle unless you're at one of the poles.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~
JohnRich 4
Quoteas a amature comp shooter shooting a rifle perfectly straight up while holding it would be almost unbearable and extremly painfull to do recoil would most likely put your ass on the ground to. hand gun more easily done but the recoil might have an effect as well.
Shooting a rifle straight-up will produce no more recoil than shooting it in any other orientation. You could simply hold it out in front of you with both hands and pull the trigger. No big deal.
airtwardo:
QuoteI don't think it's POSSIBLE to shoot a projectile STRAIGHT up...what with the planet spinning and all!
The trajectory doesn't have to be perfectly straight up in order to produce freefalling bullets. An angle of, say, 45-degrees would produce a ballistic trajectory in which some of the horizontal velocity would be retained. But if you are, say, just 10-degrees off vertical, there's going to be almost zero horizontal velocity, and a true freefalling bullet.
QuoteI just watched Episode 50 of Mythbusters the other night, and they did some experiments on this very issue
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They fired freefalling bullets at freefall speeds at a pigs head, and it bounced off (but would definitely have hurt). Basically, if it's fired at a shallow enough angle that it keeps spinning, it'll keep its ballistic trajectory and go much faster; it can kill then (they interviewed an LA doctor who has X-rays). But if it really goes straight up, where it's just freefalling down (like John's experiment), then it just keeps tumbling, and ends up going about 100 mph.
Wind tunnels, desert firings, pig heads -- it was a great show. Not to mention the vodka myths they busted. They're my new heroes
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John, I think you oughta email them.
Wendy W.
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I saw the same show and what was amazing was, the bullets, after being shot straight up, were only about 2" into the ground and on their side. I also saw the show where, high-speed bullets were fired into a swimming pool and the bullets shattered on impact with the water. Thus, saying the idea of 'hiding' under water from gun shots would save someone from being injured 'plausable'.
Chuck
kallend 2,106
Quoteshooting a rifle perfectly straight up..
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Perhaps Dr. Kallend could answer, but I don't think it's POSSIBLE to shoot a projectile STRAIGHT up...what with the planet spinning and all!
I know you can't draw a PERFECT circle unless you're at one of the poles.
You can fire it straight up anywhere. The issue is will the bullet come back down to the same spot on account of the Coriolis effect!
I once did a consulting job for the US Navy, which had a test range for it's big guns where the shell (without HE filling) was fired straight up. The test gun was in the center of a large sandy area, and when the shell came back it buried itself in the sand, and they dug it out and downloaded the ballistic profile from an onboard computer. The shells never hit the gun!
Perhaps you should only fiire your gun straight up when at the pole.
The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.
Before I arrived, I was thinking part of her ceiling fan had just come off and she had mistaken it for a bullet. When I got there, sure enough there was a .308 round laying on the carpet in the kids upstairs play room. The caller advised she had just put the kids to bed and heard a loud bang and observed the round come through the ceiling next to the fan.
The round came all the way through the roof and penetrated the ceiling of a second floor room and finally stopped when it hit the carpet. I have no doubt that would have killed someone had it struck them in the head.
I also believe that it would be very difficult to fire a round straight up to where it is "free falling". That round is coming down on a trajectory even if it is a very steep one its arcing over at the top not just stopping and free falling back to earth.
Muff Brother #4041
Team Dirty Sanchez #467
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