They tested falling bullets by firing them from both a handgun and a rifle, by firing them from an air gun designed to propel them at terminal velocity, and by dropping them in the desert from an instrumented balloon.

2021年11月24日 · Bullets travelling between 46 and 61 m/s penetrate skin. Faster than this, and they can penetrate the skull. Celebratory gunfire can cause injuries that require emergency room...

2024年12月21日 · Research has shown that a typical bullet can reach speeds of around 90 meters per second when falling. To break human skin, a bullet only needs to be traveling at 37 meters per second, and speeds of 60 meters per second or higher can penetrate deeper, causing life-threatening injuries.

2011年3月30日 · The general consensus is that a bullet fired straight up—at precisely 90 degrees to the horizontal—is unlikely to kill a healthy adult when it returns to Earth. That’s because, on the way down,...

2020年7月2日 · 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. Here's the science behind how "celebratory...

2023年10月20日 · U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Julian Hatcher's experiments in the 1940s found that a standard .30 caliber bullet fired straight up could reach an altitude of 9,000 feet (2,743.2 meters) and return to Earth at a speed of 300 feet (91.4 meters) per second during its descent.

1995年4月14日 · Mattoo’s equation predicts that Hatcher’s .30 caliber bullet, which has a small diameter in relation to its weight, will perforate the skin at only 124 feet per second. It’s easy to believe such a bullet falling at 300 feet per second could kill you, especially if …

2022年10月26日 · Bullets from celebratory gunfire, sometimes referred to as “falling bullets,” can travel up to a mile away through the air before they might hit a person. Most often, people are hit on the head, shoulders, or feet.

2023年7月10日 · Falling bullets are dangerous and can even be lethal—I’ve held the evidence. “Bullets from the Sky,” Chapter XX of Hatcher’s Notebook, covers falling bullets. Gen. Julian Hatcher described results of old Army firing tests with U.S. .30-caliber 150-grain FMJ flatbase bullets fired straight up.

Terminal velocity is difficult to calculate with falling bullets because wind resistance and updrafts can cause a spent bullet to land miles away from the initially fired site .