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Re: [Phys-l] Final velocity of bullets--sort of!




----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Haar" <haar@physics.arizona.edu>

I am 99% sure that a few years ago in Phoenix, there was serious or
fatal injury from a celebratory near vertical gun shot. As I recall,
the bullet entered the top of the skull. Since then there has been a
media campaign to warn people not to do this and the police have
attempted to clamp down. Thus it is known experimentally that
vertically fired bullets can be deadly.

The problem with such recollections is that it gives us no details about the actual bullet and the nature of the injury. I think we've already shown by both calculation and experiment (even if it was the Myth Busters) that a vertically fired bullet really isn't moving at what would be considered 'lethal' speeds.

Now we could do a statistical study, searching police records for how many fatalities have been confirmed nation-wide from celebratory gun-fire. I suspect the gun/loud-noise lobby could use such to 'prove' the relative safety of guns. Surely they are safer (in celebratory use) than trees which can (statistically) be shown to be of great danger. Around here they conspire to jump out into two-lane roads in front of 16-25 year old drivers after 2 AM in the morning. They also attack skiers regularly (especially politicians and/or celebrities). ;-)

Anyway, I do suspect that a 44-magnum round falling on one's head has considerably more momentum than a 22 or 30 caliber round. It is also possible that any 'hit on the head' might trigger additional complications that might even prove fatal. The question being addressed in the thread has, I think, more to do with the actual speed and therefore penetrating power of vertically fired bullets, and there the evidence seems highly weighted towards the non-fatal.

Rick

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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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