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tackyattack
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Ignoring whether or not the gun would be able to fire in space, what would happen if a bullet was shot, traveling 2,000 mph into space from 62 miles above the earth? How far would it go?
Vorde said:Well the short answer is it would keep on going forever. The longer answer is that it will crash into something, probably the sun.
You see space is really really big. And even though 2000 mph seems like a lot, its actually exhaustingly slow even in stellar terms. Even if you pointed the gun in the exact opposite direction as the sun, the bullet is only traveling at about 1/40th of the escape velocity of the solar system (from the Earth), and so will eventually impact the sun.
I say eventually because something moving that slow will take a while to get anywhere in space.
Jimmy said:2000mph (894m/s) isn't even close to the escape velocity of the earth.
At 62 miles (100km) above the surface:
[tex]v_{e} = \sqrt{\frac{2G*5.972*10^{24} kg}{6.471*10^{6} m}} = 11.1 km/s[/tex]
At the surface of the earth, Ve is 11.2 km/s.
Your bullet would eventually fall back to earth.
Edit: Russ beat me to it.
tackyattack said:Ignoring whether or not the gun would be able to fire in space, what would happen if a bullet was shot, traveling 2,000 mph into space from 62 miles above the earth? How far would it go?
There are several factors that would determine the outcome of a bullet shot into space, including the velocity of the bullet, the angle at which it was shot, and the location in space it was shot from. Here are five frequently asked questions about this scenario and their answers:
No, the bullet would eventually slow down and stop due to the effects of gravity. Depending on its initial velocity and angle, it may end up orbiting around a celestial body or simply continue on a trajectory until it is pulled in by the gravity of another object.
Yes, it is possible for the bullet to collide with other objects in space, such as satellites or space debris. However, the likelihood of this happening is extremely low due to the vastness of space.
It is unlikely that the bullet would disintegrate in the vacuum of space, as long as it was made of a durable material such as metal. However, it may experience some wear and tear from collisions with microscopic particles in space.
Possibly, but it would be difficult and expensive to retrieve a bullet that landed on a planet or moon. The trajectory and location of the bullet's landing would need to be precisely calculated, and a spacecraft would need to be sent to retrieve it.
No, sound waves cannot travel through the vacuum of space, so the bullet would not emit any sound once it left the Earth's atmosphere.