[buffalo]

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.

Originally posted by cc100

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!!

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.

Originally posted by cc100
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?

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.