Musings

[Dead Eye Dick]

Recently at ALTUS I was connecting with a silhouette at 1039 yards. (According to my range finder). Tricking a ballistic calculator to give me midrange trajectories, I noted that the bullet traveled 70 yards between 112.22 and 112.25 inches above line of sight with a maximum height of 112.59 inches. (Between 540 and 610 yards)

Knowing the effects of negative G’s (having done so while piloting to watch my pencil float) I am wondering if the time when the bullet sets at the top of its trajectory and starts downward towards the flight if it experienced loss of weight, (weightlessness) without obviously loss of mass.

Maybe not a comparison, but felines finish their jump just past the top of the apogee to have a negative weight and thus silent landing.

Note to trick a ballistic calculator to give midrange trajectories, set the range you are shooting to the “zero range”.

 

[Ronws]

I am reminded of the Vomit Comet, the specially equipped plane used for training astronauts to work in low G conditions. They may feel weightless but this is because the plan is accelerating down faster than they can fall. Like you said, the object, or even a human, does not suffer loss of mass and gravity is still working.

More to the point, I guess, the brief moment of apogee, like being on a roller coaster might seem weightless but it is not. Just the perception. the roller coaster is going slower than you would fall, so, you don't fall out.

To bad we cannot ask the astronauts that traveled to the Moon. There was a significant amount of time spent in nealy zero G.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Actually I made an error, in my flying and on the Vomet Comet, the true term is not weightlessness but Free-Fall. My son and I both discussed this and we are all three in agreement. And @Ronws you are also correct, it is sad that we don’t have that wonderful resource of the men who flew to the moon to ask.

 

[Ronws]

Actually I made an error, in my flying and on the Vomet Comet, the true term is not weightlessness but Free-Fall. My son and I both discussed this and we are all three in agreement. And @Ronws you are also correct, it is sad that we don’t have that wonderful resource of the men who flew to the moon to ask.

Dang it, I knew that word and forgot to say it.

There are other modern exhibits of free fall and I should have used that word.