Coli Physics Brehs I Need Some Answers About These Stray Bullets

[KyokushinKarateMan]

Sadly, NYE celebrations turned deadly last night for one woman in Texas. Here is the story

Spoiler

Police: Texas woman watching fireworks killed in her driveway by celebratory gunfire

Caution tape (Simaah/Pixabay)

By: Joy Johnston, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Updated: January 1, 2020 - 7:05 AM
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A Texas woman was shot and killed in her own driveway early Wednesday, and authorities suspect a stray bullet from celebratory gunfire is to blame.

Philippa Ashford, 61, was standing at the end of her driveway shortly after midnight while a group of family and friends were shooting off fireworks, KTRK reported. She suddenly clutched her body and said, “I think I’ve been shot.”

She collapsed to the ground and died at the scene, KHOU reported.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said it is believed a stray bullet from celebratory gunfire struck Ashford. Authorities said no one in Ashford’s group had a gun. The investigation is ongoing, as deputies are searching the area for shell casings, KTRK reported.

“I don’t know if you can figure out what the odds are, but you got the family together, they’re out here celebrating the new year, and basically the matriarch of the family is now deceased,” HSCO Sgt. Ben Beall told KHOU.

My obvious question is, how/why does this not happen more often, especially given the circumstances(numerous ppl outside at the time)? Hundreds of thousands of bullets go flying into the air every year during NYE and 4th of July. Maybe even a million or so. Where are these bullets landing. Silly enough, when I was younger I used to think that they went so high they simply disintegrated into the atmosphere before reaching outer space. I learned that wasn’t the truth of course but it still begs the question where are all these bullets landing?

 

[DragonKnight]

What goes up must come down but it’s random where they will land. Almost like lightning

 

[KyokushinKarateMan]

What goes up must come down but it’s random where they will land. Almost like lightning

Well thank you for such an in-depth theory Dr Obvious, I can tell it was well thought out. The question, however, is where do they fall and how is it such a rare occurrence given the amount of bullets fly up and the amount of people outside at the time.

 

[The God Poster]

Well thank you for such an in-depth theory Dr Obvious, I can tell it was well thought out. The question, however, is where do they fall and how is it such a rare occurrence given the amount of bullets fly up and the amount of people outside at the time.

How would anybody know

Obviously not on people

2020 your c0on ass still not using your brain .

 

[Jimmy from Linkedin]

There was an episode of csi about this. If you know the angle that the bullet landed, caliber of said bullet, and wind speed around the time someone was killed (in relation to the height that said bullet could reach based on the angle and caliber), you can get a rough area of where a bullet traveled from thru algebra and find out who was responsible given who owns the land where it was fired from.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

Well thank you for such an in-depth theory Dr Obvious, I can tell it was well thought out. The question, however, is where do they fall and how is it such a rare occurrence given the amount of bullets fly up and the amount of people outside at the time.

There are a lot of factors that dictate where these bullets will go and land

There was an episode of csi about this. If you know the angle that the bullet landed, caliber of said bullet, and wind speed around the time someone was killed (in relation to the height that said bullet could reach based on the angle and caliber), you can get a rough area of where a bullet traveled from thru algebra and find out who was responsible given who owns the land where it was fired from.

Basically this

 

[UpAndComing]

I have no idea. I'm a Chemistry breh, if you got a Chemistry question let me know

 

[Geek Nasty]

It’s called ballistics I think. The basic physics is freshman college level but gets a lot harder when you need to calculate wind speeds and air resistance, bullet tumble etc.

I doubt it’s possible to get an accurate guess where a bullet came from in a high population area. But the bullet is only going to go a few thousand feet up and land about a minute later.

 

[KING WILL]

I was in a chow hall in Iraq when a bullet came thru the roof and hit some in the chest 1 table behind me.

Spoiler: fukk

It bounced off his chest, landed on the table, and fell on the floor. We guessed that the roof and ceiling killed its momentum/energy.

I would guess it doesn't happen that often due their being a lot more landing places in populated areas. I just think its more likely that a bullet lands on a roof some where, or a tree, or simply landed somewhere that a person isn't standing vs hitting someone randomly standing outside.


I would like to see the data on a place time times square that packed full of people on New Years Eve. If a cpu model could show us how many people would get hit with fallen bullets if quite a few ppl in the time square crowd were to shoots bullets in the air.


Edit***

So, I would say its less of an Physics question and more of an Probability question.

 

[thaKEAF]

Smh man that’s a sad story. Main reason why I’m in the crib and away from windows just in a case. Dumb tradition.

 

[Dr. Acula]

The angle is the major thing that factors if a stray bullet shot in the air is deadly. If you shoot it straight up 180 degrees relative to the ground it will most likely no kill anyone.

The strongest force acting on the trajectory and speed of the bullet is the straight downward force of gravity. Air resistance/drag is second by a big margin at those speeds.

So let's say instead of aiming 90 degrees vertically from their front, the person aims...60 degrees relative to in front of them. Well the gravitational force would work to slow it's vertical speed untill it no longer has flight and falls to the ground. However the only horizontal force acting on a bullet is drag and it will maintain it's horizontal velocity close to it's initial launch until it's travel far enough to stop being leathal. In the cases where people die it's because someone may fire it in the air but it's not perfectly straight up so it still has horizontal acceleration and speed and ends up killing someone.

This concept is discussed heavily in Newtonian physics when breaking up the horizontal and vertical components of speed and acceleration. In most physics courses you assume ideal conditions unless it's given which means it acts in a vacuum and the only forces acting on it is gravity and forces applied. In these problems, you always assume the x axis speed is constant and acceleration in the x axis is zero except at initial launch

 

[Dr. Acula]

To add to my post to better illustrate it further this explains it more simply. Notice she throws it up but not straight up. The numbers represent the velocity and you notice that the velocity as it moves through the air in the horizontal maintains 12m/s while the vertical component starts to succumb to gravity and the speed decreases causing it to fall. This is because air resistance is ignore for simplicity in illustration and there are no forces acting on it horizontally and gravity is the only force acting downward on it vertically changing the speed

This is why it's just easier to tell idiots not to shoot their guns in the air because they are most likely drunk and acting impulsively and aren't making sure they are shooting straight into the air and probably busting shots at different angles with some having enough horizontal velocity to possible kill someone.

 

[Fat Fred Jones]

Why doesn't it happen more often?

Since the U.S. has an average of 2.4 people per household, this represents 1,200 people per acre

There are 43,560 square feet per acre. Assuming 1 person occupies 1 square foot of space when standing and a bullet has an impact surface area of about 0.00286 square feet, the chances of a bullet landing on someone is less than about 1 in 15,000,000. I'll let someone else do the exact math. Also keep in mind that most of the 1,200 people per acre are in their homes or otherwise sheltered someway.

 

[FeverPitch2]

Speaking from ignorance, I would think that if you shot into the air, the bullet will travel upward until the initial velocity from the gun has been spent. At that point, the bullet will stop traveling upward and surrender to gravity, beginning its descent.

The bullet will be traveling downward with a lot less force than it traveled upward.

In this particular case, somebody fukked up and shot that woman, they're just not telling who.

This article seems to saying the same shyt I'm saying with more words:
Can falling bullets kill you?

 

[-G$-]

Everyone keeps mentioning gravity, but according to the coli’s resident expert @xCivicx gravity does not exist.

Utter perplexion