Think of it as a vector with two components, vertical and horizontal. The vertical component by itself, that of a spent bullet falling at terminal velocity (which would not be the same as for a penny, since a bullet is not a penny), is not enough to do serious damage in most cases. If you add a horizontal component, though, the resultant is more than the vertical component alone.
>>Think of it as a vector with two components, vertical and horizontal. The vertical component by itself, that of a spent bullet falling at terminal velocity (which would not be the same as for a penny, since a bullet is not a penny), is not enough to do serious damage in most cases. If you add a horizontal component, though, the resultant is more than the vertical component alone.<<
Yes, I assumed up in a steep angle, nearing 90 degrees — probably good for 70 - 90 degrees due to the height if fired primarily “up.”
As I posted upthread you would need a modeler to calculate the force and I don’t have enough physics offhand to do that (although I could do the programming).
A bullet is not a penny and we need to redo the calculation. I found a terminal velocity calculator and I should have used 30 m/s as terminal velocity. The mass is correct for a bullet (average .38).