Can a bullet escape the gravity of the moon?
 

Can a bullet escape the gravity of the moon?

i really need to know to settle a bet.

ive googled but found nowt!!

ta

I have asked this one here for you.

That lot tend to be hot on this kind of thing

and wooooooooooooahhhhhhh them guys are good! :shocked: seriously, they know their stuff.

Would it not be an wonderful idea to have a forum link up, sort of like the 1975 Apollo - Soyuze link up :hugesmile:

Just think

TiBB - Bad Astronomy

im impressed at these guys...!

are they scientists?:laugh:

Some are and some are engineers

The one to watch out for is JayUtah, he is an engineer and a world authority on the Apollo programme. He is quite good at debunking HBers arguments (Hoax Believers who say the moon landings never happened)

As he has never worked for NASA, he has the advantage of being seen as independent.

Why don't you sign up like I have, it would be interesting if a few of us ventured over there and had our own thread there. I could see if anyone over there wants to come across to TiBB.

If they do, be gentle with them :spin2:

im intrested in science so i might join later sticks :spin:

thanks Sticks, I appreciate your help.

Ive also discovered that a bullet fired on the moon travels 6 times farther than on Earth.

I guess what goes up must come down even on the moon.

I won the bet BTW!


Another few questions that stumps me are:

If you 'fell' out of a spacecraft with your spacesuit on, would you ever stop falling, or would you be drawn into a planets orbit? Now thats a headscratcher!!:spin:


and, in Middle Esatern countries you always see crowds firing guns into the air. Does the bullet come down with the same speed it goes up and is it dangerous coming down, and have there been any deaths due to this?:spin2:

:wavey:In response to a request by Sticks over on the BABB, I came over here from the Bad Astronomy BB to answer some questions. I am an amature astronomer and engineer (some say enginurd) by profession.

If the space craft is sitting on the launch pad, you will stop falling when you hit the ground, or other object capable of holding your weight.

If you are in space you will continue to follow the trajectory of the craft from which you fell (?). If the craft was orbiting a planet, you will continue to orbit the planet. If the trajectory of the spacecraft was tangent to the planets' surface, you will fall to the ground. If the crafts' orbit is parabolic, you will do a fractional orbit of the planet and continue off into space.

The bullet does not come down with the same force as it had at the muzzle of the wepon. Drag, caused by it passing through the air, slows it down. The bullet will achieve some altitude, (for example, 2 kilometers), then returns toward the Earth through the force of gravity. Since gravity is the primary force motivating the bullet, it will obey the Newtonian physics of a falling object. Sort of like you dropped a rock from a balloon.

While the bullet will not have the same speed as it did at the wepons' muzzle, it will still have enough energy to kill a human if it strikes the head or other vital part of the body.

While I have no personal experience with the matter, I have read about people being killed by bullets shot into the air by unthinking morons.

what separates the atmosphere on earth to space? whats the temperature in the space around earth? and is it possible for the moon to float off? :shocked:

Hello! I'm also one of the BABBlers.

I'm one of the nutcase laymen that enjoys going insane trying to understand some of the topics on BA Forums.

Just wanted to mention that a bullet on the moon would actuall travel far over six time the distance then on earth.

On earth the Bullet has to deal with air resistance which becomes signifant the moment it exceedes the speed of sound in the barrel and keeps adding up (porportionate to it's velocity) up until it drops.

If earth had no air, a bullet in 1g would leave the barrel close to twice the speed as if there was air and travel almost 3 times it's distance as if there was air.

(Bullets have the same sonic boom issues some planes do, it's even worse in a bullets case as the shock wave refects off the barrel back infront of the bullet which is being accelerated into this. It causes a huge amount of drag inside the barrel)

Best guess is on the moon, a bullet would travel over 18 times the distance it would on earth. Possibly as far as 24 times the distance.

thanks guys, and welcome

Did anyone sign up with Bad Astronomy :puzzled:


I have to admit I have been spending more of my time over there, sitting at the feet of the experts, especially people like JayUtah

Another good place to go, where I have been is Apollo Hoax

Give them a whirl

But don't expect them to be Paul and Helen fans :laugh:

havent got a clue

Hello Sticks! Who are these people at Bad Astronomy and what can they teach me?

I have asked someone else from there to pop over and have a word, but if you go over to the home page you can see all kind of cool links to science based stuff, with a special emphasis on astronomy. :thumbs:

Even better why not register and have a go on the forums.