Posted on 09/20/2016 1:03:23 PM PDT by Leaning Right
Napoleon wasn't short? Bananas don't grow on trees? Here, the world's most contagious myths and misconceptions debunked.
(Excerpt) Read more at rd.com ...
“Funny how tame that movie seems now.”
I didn’t actually see it until years later, and it was still scary then.
Also, “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things,” and “I Spit On Your Grave.”
A bullet has an aerodynamic shape. And the penny doesn’t start at 3,000 feet per second.
We had a gift subscription for many years. We then quit paying and yet the magazines still arrived for 3-4 more years. We moved 700 miles and several states. They found us and kept delivering.
RD has not been a part of that America for quite some time. They were taken over by leftists.
Napoleon stood on dead bodies.
Napoleon censored all portraits of himself that did not paint him larger than life. He did have a death mask made because it was in keeping with what the Roman emperors did. Two were made, one is in the Cabildo museum in Jackson Square, and the other one is missing. His face was so small it could be covered by one hand.
He was known as “little soldier” back then. He was about 4 foot 8 inches. That was what the tour guide told us in New Orleans.
It’s my impression that many compilers of such lists have more of Hubris than thirst for truth. And also a general contempt for their audience. Particularly “there is no proof” is true of most anything if one “moves the goalposts” enough.
Newsweek?
Really?
A bullet fired sideways may still have enough velocity to kill someone, but one fired up in the air is going to fall like the penny. It may sting, it may break some skin, but it’s not deadly.
I was living in L.A. one New Year’s day when KNX News Radio reported a man had been killed by a celebratory falling bullet. It’s the custom of the Mexican people to shoot into the air on that night.
Newsweek was the first of many articles that popped up after I Googled something like: “shooting into the air deaths Los Angeles” I suppose I could have gone with a source we both would have liked better, but I was lazy—sorry about that!
A penny presents a surface area of 285 square mm to the air, and has a mass of 2.5 grams
A .45 ACP bullet has presents a surface area of 103 square mm to the air and has a mass of 14.9 grams.
That translates to 16 times more powerful force as the bullet falls that that of the penny.
Should you happen to read the article, this is what it says:
“When a bullet is fired into the air, it can stay in flight for over a minute. On the way down, it gains a velocity of between 300 and 700 feet per second—that’s more than powerful enough to kill a human. Skulls can be penetrated at a velocity of 200 feet per second.
On July 4, 1999, 9-year-old Brian Perez was hit in the head by a stray bullet. He died of his injuries the next day. At the time of Perez’s death, he was the 39th person to be killed by a stray bullet on a holiday in L.A.”
Tell your “Stings like a penny” story to Brian Perez’ mother.
On July 4, 1999, 9-year-old Brian Perez was hit in the head by a stray bullet. He died of his injuries the next day. At the time of Perez’s death, he was the 39th person to be killed by a stray bullet on a holiday in L.A.”
Tell your “Stings like a penny” story to Brian Perez’ mother.
...
It says he was hit by stray bullet, not one fired vertically into the air.
Thanks to all who helped cure me of my ignorance re: physics.
I learned a lot today; this is why I love FR!
Bookmarking, because I KNOW the comments are going to be fun and informative.
Thanks for the break from politics!
I am.
I remember reading a biography of Napoleon that told how he wanted a child but Josephine could not become pregnant. Then later it mentioned that he took hot baths before going to bed.
It tastes better!
The ‘propulsion’ bleeds off just as fast under air resistance. You can’t say air resistance counters the vertical speed and claim the horizontal speed stays lethal. That is only true for very horizontal shots and not ones that can reasonably considered to have been fired ‘into the air’.
The truth is that bullets fired with even a little horizontal component tend to remain spin stabilized even after they start back down. What kills isn’t that they still have horizontal velocity. By the time they hit the ground there isn’t enough in the horizontal vector to kill. What happens is because they remain in a point first orientation their terminal velocity is much higher. Only bullets fired almost PERFECTLY vertical will start tumbling on the way back down.
Actually, the full quote is: ""... it is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in fifty .... seven states? I think one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not justify it."
So, technically, he believes there are 60 states, when adding Alaska and Hawaii back into the mix.
Yes. Spin stabilized and point first. I had to look up the old Mythbusters program where they did it, but by the time I did, others had posted basically the same thing. I was trying to recall they had explained it on the program, but got it wrong.
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