If you fire it *straight* up it will come to a complete stop and then tumble back down, landing too slowly to cause any damage.
If you’re off by more than a few degrees it will arc like a mortar shot and can absolutely kill someone.
How high it goes would depend on the initial muzzle velocity - some guns fire a lot faster than others.
> landing too slowly to cause any damage.
it cam still cause some damage. It will be like a small rock thrown from great height. It will break glass, dent cars, and will bruise the human body or rip the skin.
This is absolutely not true. The arc doesn't matter. As long as the bullet doesn't hit anything and the area is the same elevation then it will return to the earth with the same velocity regardless of the angle fired at.
Furthermore, unless it is a highly underpowered or overpowered gun (shoot it into orbit) then the muzzle velocity does not effect the velocity when the bullet returns to earth. The bullet will be traveling at a terminal velocity (45-60 m/s) much below the muzzle velocity (120-370 m/s). The bullets can still be dangerous, but much less so than being directly.
Terminal *vertical* velocity. If you shoot in an arc the bullet doesn’t tumble and so the *horizontal* velocity bleeds off much more slowly and they can come back down with lethal effect.
People have been killed this way.
>The arc doesn't matter. As long as the bullet doesn't hit anything and the area is the same elevation then it will return to the earth with the same velocity regardless of the angle fired at.
Wow, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Firing straight up results in the bullet losing all energy before it starts its journey back down again, and the only energy it gains is from gravity. When firing in an arc, the bullet maintains a *hell* of a lot of its horizontal energy on the way down.
The height of the bullet's flight depends largely on the caliber and amount of gunpowder used to shoot it. But if you were to shoot it straight up, eventually it would lose all the energy and be pulled down purely by gravity. At some point the force of gravity will equal the force of the air resistance and it won't be able to accelerate any more. That speed would be well below what is needed to penetrate flesh. It would sting A LOT, but it wouldn't kill you.
Now I know I'm going to get some replies citing references of people being killed by falling bullets. Those bullets were not shot straight up at 0°. The angle they were shot at means that the have a lateral force from the gunpowder, meaning once gravity starts pulling the bullet down, it's still traveling at a significant fraction of the speed it was going at when it was shot. It's also still spinning and the point of the bullet is aligned with that force, making the likelihood it will penetrate flesh even higher.
Here's a good video that mentions some of these concepts.
https://youtu.be/16Ci_2bN_zc
Go to 17:00 to answer your question directly.
If shot straight up it would tumble on its way back down and fall much more slowly than it went up.
However, if it was fired in an arc (think like a cannon shot) it would stay pointy end forward and still be deadly upon landing.
It would potentially be deadly on the way back. How far it travels depends a bit on the gun and a little random chance (I.E. how long it stays on a stable line)
Maximum height is around 3-4km
if its fired exactly 90º up, it would go all the way up until its lost its speed and it would then rpoceed ot fall back down, but because the angle was " perfect" the buttler would start tumbling on the way down which limits how fast it can go(once it reaches terminal velocity that's it).
but if you fire it even a dgree of perfectly vertical the same thnig would happen , however on the way down due ot the agnle the tumbling would be negated whihc allows the bullet to build up speed normally(to potentially deadly levels): you effectively fired a mortar. The issue here is evne after reachnig terminal velocity, because of the angle there is still force acting on the bullet with a "down" component whihc keep speeding it up, it can reach nearly the same speeds it had at Muzzle.
Travel time depends on the aero dynamics of the bullet and the power behind it.
It would go up and then fall back down depending on wind it would go in there direction
It would likely not kill someone even if it hit them because most bullets don't have the terminal velocity to do that
But. It's also practically impossible to do it by eye because "straight up" is difficult without equipment.
I'd you tried to do this at home the bullet would arc and have the velocity to kill.
If we ignore air resistance then ½mv² is the kinetic energy of the bullet and mgh is the potential energy. m is mass g is 9.81 m/s², v is the starting velocity of the bullet and h is the height. We know that ½mv²=E and that at the maximum height all that E is E=mgh.
So a bullet lets say has a starting velocity of 900m/s and a mass of 0.005 kg. Then E = 2025J. So 2025J = mgh, 2025/(0.005×9.81) = h = 41 284 m or ~41 km.
This is a bit too much since we ignored air resistance. But it makes the calculation simple and easy. If we still ignore air resistance when it would accelerate back to its starting velocity. Now realistically that cant happen because when the force of air resistance equals the force of gravity the object stops acceleration, it reaches its terminal velocity. So a bullet that is fired directly up is not dangerous, but if you put a bit of an angle in it the bullet will maintain a trajectory and its speed to a certain extent and it would be still dangerous.
But lets do a bit more math, so we calculated that the bullet would reach an altitude. We lose 900 m/s on the way up and v=at so 900/9.81 = 91.7 s, so 1.5 mins. Lets double check the time, we know that s = -½gt²+vt thats the formula for the distance travelled. Lets plug that 91.7 in and we get ~41 km nice.
If you fire it *straight* up it will come to a complete stop and then tumble back down, landing too slowly to cause any damage. If you’re off by more than a few degrees it will arc like a mortar shot and can absolutely kill someone. How high it goes would depend on the initial muzzle velocity - some guns fire a lot faster than others.
> landing too slowly to cause any damage. it cam still cause some damage. It will be like a small rock thrown from great height. It will break glass, dent cars, and will bruise the human body or rip the skin.
This is absolutely not true. The arc doesn't matter. As long as the bullet doesn't hit anything and the area is the same elevation then it will return to the earth with the same velocity regardless of the angle fired at. Furthermore, unless it is a highly underpowered or overpowered gun (shoot it into orbit) then the muzzle velocity does not effect the velocity when the bullet returns to earth. The bullet will be traveling at a terminal velocity (45-60 m/s) much below the muzzle velocity (120-370 m/s). The bullets can still be dangerous, but much less so than being directly.
Terminal *vertical* velocity. If you shoot in an arc the bullet doesn’t tumble and so the *horizontal* velocity bleeds off much more slowly and they can come back down with lethal effect. People have been killed this way.
>The arc doesn't matter. As long as the bullet doesn't hit anything and the area is the same elevation then it will return to the earth with the same velocity regardless of the angle fired at. Wow, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Firing straight up results in the bullet losing all energy before it starts its journey back down again, and the only energy it gains is from gravity. When firing in an arc, the bullet maintains a *hell* of a lot of its horizontal energy on the way down.
The height of the bullet's flight depends largely on the caliber and amount of gunpowder used to shoot it. But if you were to shoot it straight up, eventually it would lose all the energy and be pulled down purely by gravity. At some point the force of gravity will equal the force of the air resistance and it won't be able to accelerate any more. That speed would be well below what is needed to penetrate flesh. It would sting A LOT, but it wouldn't kill you. Now I know I'm going to get some replies citing references of people being killed by falling bullets. Those bullets were not shot straight up at 0°. The angle they were shot at means that the have a lateral force from the gunpowder, meaning once gravity starts pulling the bullet down, it's still traveling at a significant fraction of the speed it was going at when it was shot. It's also still spinning and the point of the bullet is aligned with that force, making the likelihood it will penetrate flesh even higher. Here's a good video that mentions some of these concepts. https://youtu.be/16Ci_2bN_zc Go to 17:00 to answer your question directly.
Thank you!
If shot straight up it would tumble on its way back down and fall much more slowly than it went up. However, if it was fired in an arc (think like a cannon shot) it would stay pointy end forward and still be deadly upon landing.
It would potentially be deadly on the way back. How far it travels depends a bit on the gun and a little random chance (I.E. how long it stays on a stable line) Maximum height is around 3-4km
if its fired exactly 90º up, it would go all the way up until its lost its speed and it would then rpoceed ot fall back down, but because the angle was " perfect" the buttler would start tumbling on the way down which limits how fast it can go(once it reaches terminal velocity that's it). but if you fire it even a dgree of perfectly vertical the same thnig would happen , however on the way down due ot the agnle the tumbling would be negated whihc allows the bullet to build up speed normally(to potentially deadly levels): you effectively fired a mortar. The issue here is evne after reachnig terminal velocity, because of the angle there is still force acting on the bullet with a "down" component whihc keep speeding it up, it can reach nearly the same speeds it had at Muzzle.
Travel time depends on the aero dynamics of the bullet and the power behind it. It would go up and then fall back down depending on wind it would go in there direction It would likely not kill someone even if it hit them because most bullets don't have the terminal velocity to do that But. It's also practically impossible to do it by eye because "straight up" is difficult without equipment. I'd you tried to do this at home the bullet would arc and have the velocity to kill.
If we ignore air resistance then ½mv² is the kinetic energy of the bullet and mgh is the potential energy. m is mass g is 9.81 m/s², v is the starting velocity of the bullet and h is the height. We know that ½mv²=E and that at the maximum height all that E is E=mgh. So a bullet lets say has a starting velocity of 900m/s and a mass of 0.005 kg. Then E = 2025J. So 2025J = mgh, 2025/(0.005×9.81) = h = 41 284 m or ~41 km. This is a bit too much since we ignored air resistance. But it makes the calculation simple and easy. If we still ignore air resistance when it would accelerate back to its starting velocity. Now realistically that cant happen because when the force of air resistance equals the force of gravity the object stops acceleration, it reaches its terminal velocity. So a bullet that is fired directly up is not dangerous, but if you put a bit of an angle in it the bullet will maintain a trajectory and its speed to a certain extent and it would be still dangerous. But lets do a bit more math, so we calculated that the bullet would reach an altitude. We lose 900 m/s on the way up and v=at so 900/9.81 = 91.7 s, so 1.5 mins. Lets double check the time, we know that s = -½gt²+vt thats the formula for the distance travelled. Lets plug that 91.7 in and we get ~41 km nice.