This particular trajectory was reconstructed from a Maevent. On Earth, however, we have a substantial atmosphere, which means we have air resistance, and that changes the entire story.Įven if many properties of a stray bullet's trajectory are known, there are substantial variations that can arise in its final destination as a result of tiny factors that cannot be controlled for. With all that energy concentrated into a very small area, it can easily break through your skin, causing severe internal damage and even death.īut a bullet that's fired straight up would only hit you with that same speed when it came back down if you were on a world without an atmosphere, such as the Moon. Even though the bullet itself weighs only 0.2 ounces (with a mass of around 5 grams), it possesses the energy of a brick dropped from a 16 story building. When a typical AK-47 fires, the bullet leaves the muzzle at about 1500 miles-per-hour (about 670 meters-per-second), approximately double the speed of sound. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that bullets are dangerous. Typically, bullets exit the muzzle of a gun with speeds between Mach 1 and Mach 2, although some high-powered rifles can achieve significantly greater bullet speeds. This ultra-high-speed photo shows a bullet being fired out of a Smith and Wesson revolver.
Here's the science behind how "celebratory gunfire" can, and often does, kill people. But even so, these falling bullets can injure or even kill people: something that's most likely on July 4th and New Years in the United States. It will be traveling much slower than when it was first fired, as its terminal velocity (due to air resistance) is far lower than the initial muzzle speed. When it does, however, its landing location will be wildly unpredictable owing to the effects of wind and air. A combination of gravity and air resistance will slow it down until it reaches a maximum height, whereupon it will fall back down to Earth's surface. Even a bullet, fired straight up at the maximum speed a gunpowder blast can accelerate it to, will never leave the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. "What goes up, must come down," is an old saying that remains true for any object thrown or fired from Earth's surface that fails to escape into space.
This would be catastrophically unsafe in any region where the bullets could come down and land on a human. Naval soldiers prepare to fire a gun salute during a burial at sea.
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