Re: Bullet fired into air...

"Objekt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee (AP) -- A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux
> > Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head,
> > critically injuring him, authorities said.
> 
> I guess this answers the old question regarding what happens when people
> fire into the air in celebration. :P
> 
> Would be interesting to have details as to caliber and type of round.


A later report said that was an exaggeration (as so often happens in
news reports)--He was not "critically" injured.  Nor is it very likely
that one would be by a bullet fired straight up.  The U.S. Army did
some experiments on this quite a while ago: The terminal velocity
(which is also the velocity when it hits the ground) of a bullet fired
straight up is about 300 fps. They concluded that it was unlikely that
such a bullet would cause a critical wound. (See the NRA Factbook, and
the question has been discussed in sci.physics a few times also, with
the same figure)  For comparison, this is less than the velocity of a
typical pellet handgun.  It's *possible* to be injured by a bullet at
that velocity, but unlikely that it would be a serious wound, and
*very* unlikely that it would be critical.