why did they use a pistol? how could they possibly align the barrel with such precision that it would be exactly level?

and i can't tell if 4/100ths of a second difference means it was or was not "busted"

^you'd have to watch the episode to see what they did. They didn't just line it up with their eyes.

They put a laser in the barrel of the gun at 3" high (or whatever it was) then at the other end of the hangar they measured 3" high (or whatever it was) to ensure the laser was pointing in a straight line.

If they used a larger gun, the bullet would have flown farther, meaning they'd have needed a much larger hangar. And besides, why not use a pistol?

Tags for this video have been changed from 'mythbusters, bullet, fired, dropped, time, slow, motion' to 'mythbusters, bullet, fired, dropped, time, slow motion, gravity, experiment' - edited by lucky760

I'd guess that the 4/100's of a second is likely caused by the fact that they didn't secure the gun's alignment. The kick causes the barrel to angle upwards, even before the bullet leaves the barrel. Granted, the motion of the kick would be small (thus amounting to only .04 seconds), but I'm pretty sure it's measurable.

Bottom line, they screwed up when they let the gun swivel vertically.

>> ^joe2:
why did they use a pistol? how could they possibly align the barrel with such precision that it would be exactly level?
and i can't tell if 4/100ths of a second difference means it was or was not "busted"

What is the question? There wasn't enough context for me to understand what the hell was going on. Except a gun, in a really cool device that I want for my self.

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode-124-curving-bullets

Also, one of the proposed ways, from the link above, to bend or curve a bullet is to make a very large magnetic field and have, of course, bullets that contain enough magnetic materials in them to be affected by said field.

>> ^NordlichReiter:
What is the question? There wasn't enough context for me to understand what the hell was going on.

And thus we complete the circle.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Stephen-Fry-Bullet-Question

My brain is having a hard time grokking this.

I get that gravity has the same influence on both bullets, but it's just hard to get my brain to accept. I would think that the air resistance on the flying one was bigger, or that the forward momentum somehow.. influenced the forces on the bullet, such that it fell faster. The more you think about it, the more this makes sense though.

So, isn't it relatively easy to calculate where any bullet would fall depending on the starting speed? Of course you have to take into account how the bullet exits the weapon, but still.. relatively easy calculation, I'd wager.

I don't think this is entirely kopasetic.

I think if they were using a .223 long rifle the result would have been much different.

But then, I didn't really understand the exact objective of the experiment.

>> ^rougy:
I don't think this is entirely kopasetic.
I think if they were using a .223 long rifle the result would have been much different.
But then, I didn't really understand the exact objective of the experiment.


The bullet would have traveled further in the same amount of time, so the drop zone would have been further out, but the results would have been exactly the same.

>> ^village1diot:
>> ^rougy:
I don't think this is entirely kopasetic.
I think if they were using a .223 long rifle the result would have been much different.
But then, I didn't really understand the exact objective of the experiment.

The bullet would have traveled further in the same amount of time, so the drop zone would have been further out, but the results would have been exactly the same.


Exactly the same?