Arcing bullets
Has anybody seen the movie Wanted? It's a recent movie with James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman. McAvoy is an average dude who gets recruited into being a professional assassin in some fraternity. I dunno, I missed the beginning of the movie, but that's the gist of it.
In the movie, the members of the fraternity are all expert shots, and they have the ability to arc their shots. They do this by apparently swinging their arms with a lot of force. This way the assassins can shoot something that is obstructed by something in front of them, or they can shoot without a direct line of sight.
I was talking with my friends while watching this, and one of my friends was wondering why it isn't possible. I haven't taken physics in about eight years or so, so I'm pretty fuzzy in this area. My friend thought that it was indeed impossible to arc them to the degree that they did in the movie, but they thought it might be possible to give them at least a very slight arc in trajectory.
I said that swinging the gun in an arc before shooting it wouldn't make a difference, because the bullet already has to travel straight through the barrel anyway, so the barrel sets the trajectory, not the motion of the gun beforehand.
But I didn't do a good job of explaining it, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm right on this. I abandoned studies of the sciences many years ago, so I'm pretty rusty. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about, and can you explain it? You will seem even more credible if you can prove it mathematically.
In the movie, the members of the fraternity are all expert shots, and they have the ability to arc their shots. They do this by apparently swinging their arms with a lot of force. This way the assassins can shoot something that is obstructed by something in front of them, or they can shoot without a direct line of sight.
I was talking with my friends while watching this, and one of my friends was wondering why it isn't possible. I haven't taken physics in about eight years or so, so I'm pretty fuzzy in this area. My friend thought that it was indeed impossible to arc them to the degree that they did in the movie, but they thought it might be possible to give them at least a very slight arc in trajectory.
I said that swinging the gun in an arc before shooting it wouldn't make a difference, because the bullet already has to travel straight through the barrel anyway, so the barrel sets the trajectory, not the motion of the gun beforehand.
But I didn't do a good job of explaining it, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm right on this. I abandoned studies of the sciences many years ago, so I'm pretty rusty. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about, and can you explain it? You will seem even more credible if you can prove it mathematically.
Comments
Besides... that sounds like a stupid concept anyway. Reminds me of Jumper for some reason..... ugh.
He said that yes, it IS possible to curve a bullet, but you would have to apply an insane amount of force on the gun right as the gun was shooting-- way more force than any man (or Angelina Jolie) would be able to produce.
He also figured out that in order for a bullet to be curved around a room, it would first have to be curved like he had explained, and then there would have to be a little black hole directly in the center of the room.
I don't know how possible it would be for me to get the e-mail forwarded to me, but I'll ask. He's a funny guy, the math genius; he once figured out, after being asked by my ex's sister, how big would a water balloon have to be to put out the sun. Funny stuff!
It would be easier to show if i could scan a drawing or something
Except that if I was gonna mod things again I've got plenty of more fun/interesting/useful ideas.
Edit: Well, not a mod so much as a new gun.
But as a bullet is an elongated object exiting from a barrel with roughly the same interior diameter as the diameter of the bullet, you can't put this kind of a horizontal, rotational force without actually spinning the bullet by just knocking the one end of it at the moment it exits the barrel of the gun. (see diagram C)
But to do this, you'd actually have to be moving your arm in the opposite direction of the arc. Or you could create that same force by swinging in teh direction of the arc and stopping really fast with perfect timing so the bullet is teetered over the edge of the barrel.
Okay, when I was trying to explain swinging your arms, I was trying to describe picture B, I think. It would have a slanted trajectory, but it would still be going in a straight line. But then in theory if somene used spherical bullets and a specially manufactured a gun that put spin on them, then it could be possible, right? I'm not talking about wild arcs in the movie, just a little bit of an arc.
The barrel would probably have to be curved though, like in a spiral. The bullets might not fire properly, massacring the velocity of the projectile, or simply destroying the gun. Not saying it's not possible, just not probable.
I don't think that would work either nolonger, the barrel would still be confining the bullet so that only one force affects it. To make a bullet curve, a force would have to be applied after or as it's leaving the barrel of the gun.
:tmyk:
:objection:
Yes, but the air isn't technically a force, it only affected the bullet's velocity, it doesn't force it in any direction.
So it is possible in a sense. But the problem is the round would need to be spherical, and even then its cross sectional area is tiny and air is not dense enough of a fluid. And of course it could only slightly curve over a very long distance, not even close to as short as the length of a room.
So Panda is correct in that the air is not a force, but it does create forces.
Why thank you!
EDIT: Read Fuzzy's article.
So I guess technically the air is a force, but only because the bullet makes it so?