Will a fired bullet hit the ground at the same time as a dropped bullet?

[browningautorifle]

WTF is this debate about

If a paratrooper is dropped at the same time as a door bundle, which will hit the ground first?

[Sentryduty]

If a paratrooper is dropped at the same time as a door bundle, which will hit the ground first?

Entirely dependent on the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow.

[speckles]

This reminds me of physics 101 when I did that years ago.. The question as a child was what falls faster, ton of bricks or ton of feathers. Penny or a car.? Key to understand that earths gravity has same pull on everything Also Impt to understand the vacuum concept. True, everything is pulled with same force towards earths center, so; answer is bullet fired at perpendicular line to earth falls at same speed that it is dropped and lands at same time unless the ballistics of the projectile allows "flight" or rise like an Airplane. Or if something acts on the projectile like wind, rain, a body, leaf Etc. since we don't live in a vacuum, small atmospheric forces have some very little effect thus they land approx at same time but negligible in physical terms. Newton and his "Apple" helped this theory .

[Gil Boyd]

I know I hit the ground long before a heavy drop, and thank God for that, not something I looked forward too on many occasion, watching them coming in once we had hit the DZ............... probaly the most dangerous period in a Paratroopers life!!

[gsimmons]

Entirely dependent on the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow.

African or European?

[browningautorifle]

probaly the most dangerous period in a Paratroopers life!!

Specially if you were the first wave into the DZ and the second came early or you were slow clearing to the rally points. The crap that would rain down from machine guns to helmets to rucksacks...was shocking. If you were the smallest man you could jump the .30 cal and about 6 belts...they'd load you on the ramp with a forklift and throw you out like a door bundle. So, you'd hit the ground at about the speed of the .45 being fired straight down...but not land as nice.

[Peter Laidler]

Being dragged along the DZ unable to release is pretty scary......

[CINDERS]

If a paratrooper is dropped at the same time as a door bundle, which will hit the ground first?

Both of them hit at the same time Jim if neither chutes open......

I guess in relation to Sentry's workings as he points out 9.8m/sec2 is the rate of gravity plus the friction of the air on the projectile will also decrease the range the bullet will travel in the horizontal plane before it hits the ground I was going along a harder question on which came first "The Chicken or the Egg?"
Your not alone Gil I will stand in your corner once I leave mine.......by the way Gil picked up an old Parker Hale shooting jacket patch the other day will get a pic of it and a few others I have for you to look at (We will look at them together in your corner so the others won't see)

[browningautorifle]

Both of them hit at the same time Jim if neither chutes open......

And that brings us right back to the original question...

[DonaldD]

In theory, both will hit the ground (assuming it is level) at the same time. I remember 40+ years ago a physics experiment called the hunter and the monkey. The premise was a hunter aimed at a monkey hanging from the branch of a tree. Just as the hunter fired, the monkey let go. Would he hit the monkey? The practical session sadly didn't involve either a monkey or a rifle - just two ball bearings. One was held by a solenoid about 6 feet from the floor. Another was rolled along a horizontal ramp at the same height. A photo-switch at the end of the ramp de-energised the solenoid allowing both balls to drop at the same time (eventually, as sometimes the photo-switch failed, much to our amusement). Using a then state-of-the-art polaroid camera and a stroboscope in a darkened lab, it was shown that they both hit the floor simultaneously.

Ah.... happy days

Donald