Originally Posted By: OldTurtleQuote:I can't believe you said that. You made it sound like gravity is changing due to speed, but gravity is a constant. I doubt you meant it to come out that way....You are right,, I should have written that the effect of gravity becomes more pronounced, but I guess I was thinking that most of our intelligent readers would catch that...
When a bullet strikes the ground many variables are introduced into the mix that determine where the bullet comes to rest, but gravity or the effect of gravity is not one of them. Just impacting the ground reduces velocity and causes unpredictable changes to the bullet shape, rotation, and aerodynamics. The bullet bounce will depend on angle of incident, jacket composition, and the friction of the surface material among other factors. Just think of gravity as a constant that is always there to pull the bullet toward the ground. The speed and shape of the bullet are the main variables. The acceleration of gravity is a constant that is built into bullet trajectory calculations.
The bottom line is: Bullets that fragment easily don't ricochet much. I doubt the original poster is much interested in the physics discussion, so I'll take my science manual and go home now.
