Floating bullet theory, riddle me this...

[3MTA3]

What if you shot a bullet perfectly verticle up in the air. Will it come down vertically? It's hard to imagine that it would develop an arc.

A perfectly vertical shot is only theoretical, but let's assume that you did. In a vacuum with a perfectly balanced bullet and also managed to stop the Earth's rotation it would do so as the only force against it is gravity. Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere the gravity from mountains, trees, building, etc., however weak, would still cause drift though it would be very, very slight.

Add the atmosphere the trajectory would shift a bit more even if the bullet was perfectly symmetrical.

Change it to a spinning Earth and you have the corillos effect changing the trajectory.

It still might hit you, but it wouldn't come back down the barrel, but in reverse.

 

[arakboss]

A perfectly vertical shot is only theoretical, but let's assume that you did. In a vacuum with a perfectly balanced bullet and also managed to stop the Earth's rotation it would do so as the only force against it is gravity. Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere the gravity from mountains, trees, building, etc., however weak, would still cause drift though it would be very, very slight.

Add the atmosphere the trajectory would shift a bit more even if the bullet was perfectly symmetrical.

Change it to a spinning Earth and you have the corillos effect changing the trajectory.

It still might hit you, but it wouldn't come back down the barrel, but in reverse.

If it's not going to fall back down into the barrel, I'm not going to bother then

 

[Koda]

A perfectly vertical shot is only theoretical, but let's assume that you did. In a vacuum with a perfectly balanced bullet and also managed to stop the Earth's rotation it would do so as the only force against it is gravity. Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere the gravity from mountains, trees, building, etc., however weak, would still cause drift though it would be very, very slight.

Add the atmosphere the trajectory would shift a bit more even if the bullet was perfectly symmetrical.

Change it to a spinning Earth and you have the corillos effect changing the trajectory.

It still might hit you, but it wouldn't come back down the barrel, but in reverse.

What if you fired the bullet perfectly straight up, exactly on the North Pole?

 

[arakboss]

What if you fired the bullet perfectly straight up, exactly on the North Pole?

Santa would be pissed.

 

[bcp]

The Army did some tests on a beach long ago. IIRC, the bullets fired vertically came down point up, stabilized by the spin.

1:10 twist, 2700 MV = 194,400 RPM

Bruce

 

[3MTA3]

What if you fired the bullet perfectly straight up, exactly on the North Pole?

True North or Magnetic? Both have issues.

 

[Nutty4Guns]

.

 

[Koda]

True North or Magnetic? Both have issues.

I would guess it would have to be true north...

Hypothetical no wind...

 

[CamoDeafie]

What if you fired the bullet perfectly straight up, exactly on the North Pole?

True North or Magnetic? Both have issues.

The axis of Earth's rotation (North or South). If you could also get the rifling perfectly matched to the Earth's rotation, then it is in theory possible to have only drag and gravity acting on the projectile until it slows down and then it'll start arcing somewhere, because the earth is not just rotating in place, it is orbiting the Sun.

 

[osprey]

Never shot bullets straight up in the air as kids but arrows were a different story. We would all hold our mud until visual on arrow was lost and we would flee to the sides like vermin from a sinking ship. Amazing any of us stupid kids survived childhood.

 

[3MTA3]

I would guess it would have to be true north...

Hypothetical no wind...

There is still a small amount of wobble (the Earth is not a true sphere nor is it really well balanced) so it will still get a slight trajectory change to to shifting gravity.

Magnetic North is nearby and there will always be some sort of iron present in your bullet, so again a tiny amount of trajectory shift.

 

[osprey]

We were just smart enough to use field points instead of broadheads.

 

[64MercurysRule]

Speaking of Space ........

 

[orygun]

Remember: Irrelevants never forget.

Are they related to the Asian or African?

 

[CamoDeafie]

Are they related to the Asian or African?

That's a mammoth of a dilemma, perhaps they're related to the white or the room?

 

[osprey]

That's a lot of trunk to unpack!

 

[Ranoca]

What if it was carried by a swallow? What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

 

[64MercurysRule]

What if it was carried by a swallow? What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/s2ZKORsywaA?si=u4mUoKtCw-kcWK-f

 

[wired]

Its the schools cirriculum fault, I woulda got staight As if I would have been able to test this theory with a 357 magnum....

Yeah, I remember when I had a fast bass boat . In some areas going upstream on the Columbia it would go about 90 MPH. Downstream more like 100 MPH and on still water around 95. The pitot tube reading would be radically different than the GPS reading. The GPS reading , while true for land , would not be true relative to the speed of the water and since I was on the water its that speed which was true. .

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

Never shot bullets straight up in the air as kids but arrows were a different story. We would all hold our mud until visual on arrow was lost and we would flee to the sides like vermin from a sinking ship. Amazing any of us stupid kids survived childhood.

We used a crossbow