Where Do Bullets Go When Fired Into The Air? 

No. The bullet will go into space orbit escape and hit Mars, ricochet back to earth and then hit someone.

When I was a kid I had a fiberglass bow and steel arrows; and one day we tried shooting arrows straight up. It was just fun until I lost track of where it was - and it suddenly landed next to me; the fletching literally brushing past my fingers before embedding itself a good 15 cm into the ground. ... That's when I realized that shooting anything straight up is dangerous.

So it took almost 2 minutes to tell us that the bullet comes back down... and that we shouldn't fire guns in cities cause we have a greater chance of hitting somebody.... I don't even...

Trickshots do happen on accident.

When you fail this fantastically at basic physics stuff, you lose credibility. The real answer is that it depends on a couple of factors, the most important being the angle at which the bullet was fired. If it were fired straight up at, or close to 90°, it would stop, and then fall back at only terminal velocity, which is not great enough to cause any significant harm. The problem is that people who shoot guns into the air don't always do it straight up. When it is fired at an angle, a bullet can maintains significant forward velocity pretty far down range.

You should do a video on how tranquilizer dart works.

The military did some tests many years ago firing 30 caliber bullets straight up. Some bullets fell back pretty close, other were blown sideways coming down due to wind. None impacted with enough force to do serious injury. I'm not sure but maybe MythBusters did this experiment too.

Did I just watch a video telling me that bullets come down after being shot up in the air? And if there are people around when I shoot a gun I have chances of shooting someone? Really? I mean COME ON! This is insulting my intelligence.

I learned NOTHING

Did you have a stroke at 1:30 ? LOL

I'm sorry, but this video literally told me the obvious. Like I could of figured all this out with common sense.

They made this video with the assumption that the majority of people didn't know the bullet would come back down.

Well, I think it was obvious that it would come back down, but I was expecting some examples, like how long would it take from a certain gun, certain angle etc.. for the bullet to come down, how much could it travel from shooting position and that sort of stuff.

Video should've ended at 0:47

From 1:35 until the end the video turns into hipster talk.

To brain stuff, is there such a thing called a brain fart ? During a brain fart you temporary lose memory and cannot recall simple things such as your phone number, name, address, ect.

well, in my country many people killed or injured by unknown bullets came from sky personally, 2 bullets hit my car in deferent days

What happens when put a dryice into oil / boiling oil?

we can use blanks and just fire away

This is actually a fairly good question - I'll do my best to cover the bases when answering: First, we need to define a bullet. Do you mean a conventional piece of metal propelled by rapidly expanding gasses? Or do you mean "is it possible to chuck something into space, and will it be able to hit the moon?" Let's consider some of the things this "bullet" would have to endure: When you fire it, it would need to be capable of accelerating to a VERY high speed - also known as the escape velocity (of earth). This is the minimum speed needed to escape the gravitational pull of earth. This is around 11km/s! Nearly 40.000km/h! This is roughly 7 times faster than the fastest bullets commonly fired. You also need to make sure the material this "bullet" is made from can withstand accelerating to such a speed within the lenght of the barrel of the gun - my guess here is that if you attempt to do this within, say, 50cm, any known materials would simply disintegrate, turn into some sort of plasma or something really cool and destructive. Also, to ensure such high acceleration, you'd need to be able to contain the VERY(!) rapidly expanding gasses in a chamber that can withstand these pressures. This would also be hard - but not unfeasible. These problems could be overcome by either attaching the propellant to the bullet itself, thus creating a rocket (but then it's not really a bullet anymore, is it?), or by lauching it without gasses, but with magnetism, rails guns/coil guns and so on. Let's assume this is the method we decide on. We build a bloody long and powerful electromagnetic gun, point it at to moon, load it up with a bullet made of magnetic material and fire. What happens? As the bullet moves through the atmosphere of the earth, it creates friction with the air surrounding it - and since it's moving VERY fast, it creates a LOT of friction. This would burn the bullet to ash unless it was either VERY big (then it would just burn the bullet into a somewhat smaller bullet, but this would require massive amounts of energy to launch...) or you would need to coat the magnetic core of the bullet with something that can withstand immense heat and is able to insulate. Ceramics or some application of aerogel would be good ideas. Allright then: We have a rail/coil/whatever-gun pointed a the moon and a insulated magnetic bullet. We fire. The bullet escapes the earth and flies towards the moon. But misses, even though we pointed the gun exactly at the moon. Why did we miss? Because, even at these speeds, it would take the bullet roughly 10 hours (not counting the effects on speed of gravity from earth or moon) to reach the moon. So you'd basically need to shoot 10 hours before the moon enters the sights of your gun. This is called "leading" and is need in order to hit moving targets. If you do all this, then yes, you can shoot the moon. Disclaimer: This is all VERY not-exact math. I know.

spoons are dangerous. in fact its even more dangerous than a bullet. take a look at the video "The Horribly slow murder with the extremely insufficient weapon"

0:54 bullets are designed to be fairly aerodynamic, in the direction they were fired. Bullets spin, some over 200,000 rpms, and spinning objects resist rotation. The bullet doesn't reach its apex, rotate, and then come back down still pointing the direction of travel. The rotation stabilizes it in the direction the gun was facing when it was fired. It stays pointing that direction the whole arc. So when it begins coming back down, it's actually meeting more air resistance. Also, terminal velocity is kind of a thing, and the terminal velocity of a bullet is not going to kill anyone. That said, obviously a billed fired at any angle lower than 90 degrees straight up will still have some lateral velocity too, from the angle it was fired at, but... well... let's put it this way... the lateral movement of a bullet would be its velocity in the direction parallel to the ground, and that is going to be a percentage of its maximum velocity based on the percentage the angle was pointed up from 0 degrees on the vertical plane. So in other words 0 degrees is 100% lateral velocity, 90 degrees is 0%, and 45 degrees is 50%. But we also have to subtract drag from air resistance which increases with the distance traveled. Now, I have already done pretty much all the math. Now, anyone shooting up in the air it is pretty safe to assume they are likely doing so at an angle greater than 60 degrees. Now, automatically, that means about 2/3 of their lateral momentum is gone. As for factoring in distance traveled, as it was stated, rounds shot into the air can often travel up to 2 miles, but that's not actually the total distance they traveled because they took an arched trajectory, meaning they actually traveled a bit further because of the indirect path. Now, the typical 9mm round is designed for shooting up to about 50 meters, a really good shot might stretch it out up to 100 meters, but this is largely a limitation of sighting on pistols. The actual lethal range if you got struck by a 9mm round is about 1/2 mile. But such a shot would be an absolute fluke, and that is still if the bullet is fired at about the lowest angle that can achieve that range given the terrain, which is much lower than 60 degrees. So, honestly, I don't really see a reasonable situation where these bullets will kill someone, not unless you got some idiot firing at remarkably low angles that barely justify calling it shooting into the air. Now, a bullet is very dense, but really it doesn't have that much mass, they operate almost entirely off their velocity for their damage potential. So its terminal velocity is unimpressive when it comes to actually being able to hurt someone. It's not going to be lethal, but it's also not going to just not hurt either. You are still looking at some decent blunt force on impact, like if someone threw a rock at you. So, probably not the best of ideas, but no, you aren't going to kill anyone. Now, there are safe ways to do this, entirely safe, mind you. You can use blanks, just you know, bear in mind don't act stupid with the blacks, just cause their is no projectile doesn't mean hot high pressure gas can't hurt someone at close range, but no projectile means nothing to come back down. There are also rounds that fire shot comprised of small pellets I stead of a solid bullet, these should be completely harmless because each individual pellet has very little mass at all and won't carry much energy. A pistol like the Taurus Judge which fires 410 shotgun shells ought to be just fine especially with bird shot as should any shotgun firing bird shot because bird shot is literally designed to be fired safely into the air.

did anyone actually click on this video while not already knowing the answer? where the hell else is the bullet gonna go?

I usually don't like to take what the Mythbusters do as scientific fact, but when they tested this myth about falling bullets, there was very little they could do to mess it up. Step 1. Find out the top speed of a falling bullet. Step 2. Fire a bullet at that speed at a test dummy. Did little damage. Easy peasy.

My answer to the title is : they fall back slowly...

Hey guys ! Thanks for explaining this for those who didn't knew what's happening when you shoot bullets into the air, but i have a question for you : How it's going to be when a spacecraft(or sort of) is coming back on Earth entering in atmosphere in South Pole where is Antarctica ? The spacecraft will be upside down ? I find it hard to write it and describe you only in this way, i hope you can understand what i mean. It were easly to show you in a draw or something like that and explaining all of this. I hope you will answer. Thank you !

I thought that bullets went forever lost in space ¬¬

In Russia we sometimes take a Nagant pistol to a mountain and shoot it in the Air in celebration. There is another country that is known for doing this on Christmas but I can't remember it

"depending on the angle of the shot and the power of the gun" No, not the power of the gun, it's dependent on the amount of powder in the bullet. A gun is just a mechanical device that uses a firing pin to hit the "striker" on the bullet which set off a chain reaction (striker ignites the powder in the bullet, etc. etc.). If you're going to educate us, please you correct information.

It comes down through my living room ceiling on New Year's Eve. Good thing I was not home.

Ever hear of a thing called terminal velocity? Also, the ambient air and resistance from the wind slows a bullet down drastically. I feel as is there was no research done when this video was created. Only an agenda.

People get killed by stray bullets that are propelled by a firearm, not from falling out of the sky. Bullets falling from the sky actually tumble downward and don't spiral down as they would if propelled from the barrel of a gun. So, falling bullets are not really considered lethal. It would be like getting hit by a pebble falling from an airplane. It would hurt really bad, but mostly likely not kill you.

Wow...I would never of guessed that a bullet shot in the air will sometime have to come back down...and oh oh wait....if there's more people around there's a bigger chance it'll hit someone, oh shit people are so smart coming up with this stuff!!! (

Actually Myth Busters did an episode on this subject and as long as a bullet is fired straight up it does not fall fast enough to be lethal but if it is fired at an angle it certainly can be.

Guys I know this is gonna sound crazy... but I think they might go down when you fire them straight up.

Just wanted to comment and say I love the show. It's so addicting. Please don't ever stop making episodes I will watch them forever.

I was expecting they would experiment on what would happen

insted of firing an actual bullet into the air use blanks which are basically unfired shells just without the bullet so that means you can fite your gun in the air without having to worry about any bullets coming down and killong someone

Gonna hit the skybox

Instructions unclear, killed a paraglider

you guys have heard about... ya know... blank cartridges ?

The gun does not have much power at all. What you meant to say is it depends on the power of the bullet AKA the amount of gunpowder in the cartridge and the size of the bullet

The explanation is very poor. I expected more, Dissapointed...

I'm Mexico when theres a party called a balacera when the singer starts to sing we shoot guns in the air

Wrong aliens take them for their metal.

Doesn't even touch on the fact that wind will carry the bullet

no shit captain obvious

Wow, a whole video describing how things that are shot into the air fall back down, i feel so enriched.

Wrong!!!! The bullet is not lethal when on its way down... there is this thing call teminal velocity..

you underestimate my spoon throwing skills

The explosion happens in the bullet casing so I don't think guns can be considered "powerful". Guns are just specificly shaped pieces of metal. Fun fact: the lower reciever is the only piece of a gun that is technically considered a gun under the law, even though it's equally as useless as all the other pieces when taken apart.

I expected to hear about coreopsis effect, rotation, wind resistance, angles, velocity etc. What I got was “what goes up will come down”. Just like the thumb that I award this video.

oh wowwwwww how interesting I thought they just disappeared into a black hole in space, who would have thought they would come back down :O they should do a video on what would happen if you jumped into a fire, maybe the answer is you would get cold

I learned more from the comments then the actual video

Lol for some reason I always thought the bullets went into space

AM I LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE WHO FUCKING CRACKED UP WHEN THAT ANIMATED SPOON HIT HER HEAD?!? XDDDDD

woaw....ur expressions made me nauseous..n d exaggeration killed me

There some inaccuracies here, a bullet falling back to earth does not have the velocity to kill you, if so hail weighing the same as a bullet would kill you too, it reaches what is called , this does not mean terminal like dying, it means Terminal velocity is the highest velocity attainable by an object as it falls through air.

um....down?

from wikipedia "In Puerto Rico, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve, the CDC says."

She doesn't even know what she's talking about. She is just rambling on for time and barely answers the question.

Miss .. actually it comes down 2 to 3 times faster depends on the angel and the air - wind speed .. because of the gravity of the earth (physics rule) . Thanks good information .

cringe

sooo you're saying there is a higher chance of hurting someone if i fire a gun in a crowded area... i thought a bullet would if vanished in air .. im soo happy you made this video..

For long time I thought that if I shoot in the air, the bullet will return with the same speed (and lethality). If you give the bullet closer look you see, it's quite nicely aerodynamic. But only in the direction of shooting. When bullet reaches the highest point of travel, it stops and start to fall back. At this time bullet still faces upwards and has much bigger air resistance. This means bullet reaches earth with much smaller energy then it was fired up. The important question is, how much smaller this energy is? Answer for this I was hoping to hear in video, but it was't there.

This should be common sense, but it isn't. A few years ago my family was at a lake celebrating 4th of July. At the conclusion of the fireworks, we immediately left. I didn't want to get stuck in the parking lot when everyone else was trying to leave at the same time. Someone near the lake shot a bullet straight up into the air. It came down with enough force to kill a little boy. He didn't go to my child's school, but news of a local child dying such a tragic death terrified all of the kids in the area. It's something that everyone still talks about around 4th of July. I feel so bad for that family and also so grateful that we happened to leave before the bullet came down. It happened so fast that there's no way anyone could have blocked it or moved out of the way. Who expects a stray bullet to come down from the sky?

In my country it's something normal to fire guns in the air.. On NYE I was at a friends house and the fired bullets were falling on is roof like rain..

There is something called "Terminal velocity". A 90m/s terminal velocity is reached for a typical .30-06 bullet dropping downwards-when it is returning to earth having been fired upwards, or dropped from a tower-according to a 1920 U.S. Army Ordnance study You would get hurt but for sure not die.

Power of the gun? I think its the cartridge and the weight of the bullet as well as length of the barrel of the gun.

I like how the shirt shark is there trying to catch all the imaginary bullets for a lil snack

Into the air. Duh. *smacks forehead

All my life I tight about it and find randomly a video on it.. 😉

Woow you actually made a video to tell people that a bullet will come back down when you shoot it. Thanks so much!

This was so informative, can do more obvious,stupid ones please? Thanks.

What's with all the rambling? so you mean to say the bullet falls down slowly. But since its a metal you might get hurt a little if it falls on your head. That's the answer what I want to hear.

When I was a kid my dad put me in his truck and fired his shot gun straight up over it then jumped in and saud "this is way you never shoot a gun into the air" seconds later the truck was rained on by the shot. That always stuck with me that and the 80's rocked

"Most major cities have laws in place to try to keep people from shooting guns in the air in celebration." That must be the most american sentence I have ever heard.

Mythbusters disproved the lethality of a bullet fired up into the air

The number of stray bullets that hit people isn't even related to the chances of falling bullets hitting people. That's like calculating how likely it is that you will be in plane crash by using a estimated annual car crash chart.

Regardless of whether the bullet is rotating or not, it will eventually fall with the tip pointing at the ground. Although the angular momentum creates stability to the bullet, the air resistance of the fall will destabilize the bullet more than the rotation will. Also, tumbling and less velocity does not mean less damage. What determines the damage is how much energy is transferred to the object. A 7.62 NATO has more damage at 800m than it does at 300m, because of the yaw and destabilization.

Has anyone else noticed that in tv shows and movies: some lawmen fire warning shots up in the air in crowded areas? When in fact they should fire warning shots into the ground a few feet away from themselves - perhaps not as dramatic as firing a gun into the air, but safer =D

You failed to mention that shooting at an angle is far more lethal then just shooting straight up. Shooting up will cause the bullet to reach terminal velocity and free fall back down. A bullet fired in an arch is less likely to reach terminal velocity. It will travel in a parabola and maintain much of it's lethal momentum.

If you shoot a bullet in a 90 degree angle it vill not hurt anyone if it hits anyone on the way down, if it is a smal bullet sins it will only travel at terminal velocity. If you shoot at an angle it will retain much of it speed and will kill a person if it hits anyone. This is what you should have said. Nut I assume most here have seen MythBusters.

wow, such a surprise that the bullet falls! I never knew gravity existed!

Last Summer someone shot a bullet straight up in the air in celebration during a 4th of July fireworks display. The bullet fell back down and killed a seven year old boy. I didn't know the kid, but his death makes me hate people who shoot for no reason. Guns are for hunting or self-defense. Please, people, don't just shoot randomly just for fun! Bullets don't just disappear.

So you're saying the more crowded the more likely a bullet would hit someone? Fucking genius, I never would have guessed!

check out the mythbusters test on this. if its actually fired straight up its not actually lethal because its terminal velocity isnt high enough. still not a good idea though

The angle is what makes it lethal not the aerodynamics of the bullet when it's coming down. For example 90 degree shots will most likely not be fatal while 45 degree shots are

myth busted... they are wrong actually, if a bullet is fired mostly straight up into the air, so the barrel 90 degrees to the ground, a bullet out of say a 9mm pistol, can only hit terminal velocity on its way down, unlike when it leaves the muzzle around 1200 FPS. it could hurt a lot and maybe do a bit of damage, but proven rarely would be lethal, however if fired on an arch trajectory, thats a different story as the bullet would still retain some of its velocity from the gun, unlike the free falling bullet.

Bullets are designed to be aerodynamic when being shot horizontally, but their terminal velocity isn't lethal because of this shape. When they reach the peak of their flight, and begin to fall back to earth, they flip end over end causing more air resistance.

Shooting bullets in the air, without care, is a prime example of,"Out of sight, out of mind."

Stray bullet doesn’t mean it was shot up in the sky. Stray bullet means the bullet was shot at horizontal angle and either missed or was accidentally discharged and hit someone not intended.

I'm pretty sure you're trolling, but on the chance you aren't, I'll explain what happens. When the bullet is fired, it has an initial velocity (365m/s) at which it travels, however there is also the force of gravity pulling it back down (towards earth). Acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.81m/(s^2), which means that the bullet is slowing down by 9.81m every second. Assuming the acceleration is constant and neglecting resistance, the height is approx 6824.78m. Most planes fly higher

Happened quite often in Houston..... Mostly on holidays on New Year or 4th of July....

Whoa!! If there are more people around, theres a greater chance a bullet will hit someone? Glad I stuck in there for that in-depth analysis!

Eating ice cream, throwing the spoon in the air and hitting someone with it wont kill someone? Challenge accepted

A bullet travels more than two miles not one!

Or you can you shoot birdshot. I can't imagine birdshot being lethal at terminal velocity.

fired straight up means they lose all their energy... and it would be just as bad as iff a peace of gravel fell on you... its not dangerous

I actually would like to ask how much time it would take the bullet to hit the ground back from up the air. Just to make sure its safe and sound to walk around after any shooting in air, lol.