From: hal@finney.org
Date: Mon Oct 01 2001 - 22:03:45 MDT
Spike writes, regarding firing shots into the air:
> In the event of such an attack, I figure a five hundred proles
> squeeze off 10 rounds each to accumulate about a 50% chance
> of a score, so we should expect about 5 deaths and 10 injuries
> by falling bullets per shootfest. Let us hope it never comes to
> this.
According to http://home.sprynet.com/~frfrog/miscella.htm:
: Hatcher describes one experiment with the 150gr M2 Ball bullet fired
: vertically. When it came back from vertical (round trip time was about
: 42.9 seconds) it left only a 1/16 inch dent in a soft pine board that it
: happened to hit. (Not exactly what it would do at 2700f/s, eh?) Based
: upon this and similar tests Hatcher concluded that the impact velocity
: was about 300 f/s, which from additional testing appears to be the
: terminal velocity (the maximum free fall velocity which is limited by
: air drag on the body in question) of that bullet falling from any height
: in the atmosphere. (If I remember correctly from my limited parachuting
: experience the terminal velocity of a falling person is somewhere around
: 130 mph or about 200 f/s.)
The article goes on to say that this is fast enough to penetrate the
skin and potentially cause serious injury. But I doubt that you would
kill someone hitting them on the top of the head with a bullet going
only this fast.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:11:06 MST