Sorry, but the title is just an attention getter. This post is not about leprechauns.
Today was my first time visiting the MB forums and one of the first things that caught my eye was three posts in a row that talked about some kind of curving bullet. I read the irritated replies and feel that I should be of some assistance.
First, it should be noted that Wanted is in the Comic Book universe and contains Comic Book Physics, just like Spider Man, X-Men, the Hulk, etc. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
With that being said, the issue at hand is weather or not a person can rotate their wrist while firing a gun and cause the bullet to curve horizontally. The answer is no, it is not possible to curve a bullet like that. This is basic physics. This would be like asking if a 10 pound weight and a 5 pound weight dropped at the same time from the same height would hit the ground simultaneously. Both scenarios can be found in the first few chapters of a High School Physics book.
The issue is about force. Whenever an object curves, it is accelerating. In order to accelerate, a force is needed. That is Newton’s second law: F=ma. In order for a bullet to curve horizontally, it would need a horizontal force pushing on it.
Consider this: you have a tennis ball tied to a string. You swing it around above your head in a circle. The ball is following a curved, circular path above your head. Where is the force coming from? The string. The string is constraining the ball to follow a circular path. Now you let go of the string. Does it continue traveling in a circle? It would be spooky if it did. But we all know what happens, the ball flies away from you. Once it is released, the only force acting on it is gravity which pulls it downward.
Now, we return to the gun scenario. If the gun is rotating and the bullet is fired, the bullet will have a horizontal force pushing on it, before it leaves the barrel. The force is coming from the barrel of the gun as the gun is rotating. The bullet will follow its curved path for as long as the inside of the barrel is pushing on it. Once the bullet leaves the barrel, there is no more horizontal force. No force means no horizontal acceleration, and no horizontal curvature.
So, the answer is no. No, you cannot curve a bullet by rotating the gun while firing. It defies Newton’s laws of motion, and, hence, can only happen in a movie with CGI.
There are, however, some other ways that would cause a bullet to curve horizontally after it is fired.
1 – Wind, of course. The wind will push on the bullet horizontally and will change its trajectory. However, this will only curve the bullet into the direction of the wind, not curve it in a circle.
2 – The Coriolis Effect. This isn’t really causing the bullet to curve; it’s simply the earth spinning underneath the bullet while it is travelling. But even then, this effect is extremely negligible over short trajectories. It also depends on where you are. If you’re at the equator and fire towards the west, for example, the bullet won’t curve at all. Again, the effect is extremely negligible. A round that is fired over a mile will move only a few feet to the side. Hardly the kind of curvature seen in Wanted.
3 – This would give the best results. If the bullet had an electric charge – a large one – and there was a strong magnetic field oriented vertically where the shooter was standing, then the bullet will experience a horizontal force perpendicular to its trajectory causing it to curve in a circle. However, this has nothing to do with spinning the gun; this is just the interaction of a moving electrical charge with a magnetic field. Of course, the gun - and the bullet - would have to be made out of aluminum or some kind of non-ferromagnetic material otherwise the magnetic field would pull them straight to the ground (or the ceiling, it all depends on the field direction). And the bullet would likely travel around and hit the shooter’s hand.
4 – Spherical projectiles. Musket balls, paint balls, BB’s and cannons are all spherical and the Magnus effect can cause them to curve after being fired if their axis of spin is not parallel to their velocity vector. Modern bullets and rifling are designed to overcome this effect, as you all know.
So there you have it. I hope that was a thorough explanation. Please don’t try it at home. Other members have reported stories of people being thrown out of firing ranges for attempting to curve bullets by swinging their arms.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: mythmod,
This thread is excellent, perfect even I might say brilliant explanation to those slow individual that think that everything that appears on the big screen its doable/possible. Again curving bullet not possible.
But will the people read this thread ? or would people just say I'm too lazy to read, deciding to ignore it very much like people avoiding the stickies at the top of this page ?. Continuing to post the very same thing as the penny falling from a tall building.
[quote]curving bullets are like leprechauns[/quote]
You mean they will lead me to a pot of Gold. So you are saying that I am a lousy shot...and this whole time I thought my bullets were curving away from the target.
Seriously though good post. I just hope people read it. Stickies at the top with good info seem to work fairly well. There hasn't been a .50 cal post for a while now.
Interesting post. I wish you luck with this, and apparently so does Mythmod, that's probably why she made it a sticky.
Just be prepared to see it ignored, challenged by the "what if" brigade, and challenged by people who swear that their father's uncle's best friend's next door neighbor's dog walker's hairdresser's son's fourth grade teacher actually did this.
Also, your post reminds me a lot of a friend I have on another forum, also a Lockheed employee. Goes by the name of ParrotRob on that forum.
Thanks guys. And, wow, a response from the moderator. I only hope that this prevents trigger happy movie lovers from swinging their arms around while shooting and accidentally hurting someone.
What about everything else in this move? have you seen the previews theres a whole lot of crazy "physics defying" stuff in there, and as we have all seen stuff that appears to defy physics can happen, in past episodes adamand jamie have both been stupified by the outcome, what about getting into a car that ia drifting tward you at speed?
Very funny... I'm just glad I read before I ask questions.
