Monday 7 February 2011

Curving a bullet

Would a bullet curve if it were round and had a side spin and low velocity? Mythbusters tested the bullet curve idea from the movie Wanted and found it to be untrue (of course). What I'd like to know, however, is whether they gave up too soon. See, soccer balls curve in the air all the time. All it takes is side spin to set up a "Magnus effect". So if you want to curve a bullet, perhaps what you need, rather than unbalanced projectiles or fancy gunplay is a low-velocity, spherical projectile with high drag coefficient spinning sideways.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I don't have access to such things myself.
PPS - Nor a place to test it, if I did.

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