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What Would Happen If You Shot a Gun In Space?
Life Little Mysteries ^ | 2/17/2010 | Natalie Wolchover

Posted on 02/25/2012 3:43:56 PM PST by U-238

Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot. Modern ammunition contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that will trigger the explosion of gunpowder, and thus the firing of a bullet, wherever you are in the universe. No atmospheric oxygen required.

The only difference between pulling the trigger on Earth and in space is the shape of the resulting smoke trail. In space, "it would be an expanding sphere of smoke from the tip of the barrel," said Peter Schultz an astronomer at Brown University who researches impact craters.

The possibility of gunfire in space allows for all kinds of absurd scenarios.

Imagine you're floating freely in the vacuum between galaxies — just you, your gun and a single bullet. You have two options. You either can spend all of eternity trying to figure out how you got there, or you can shoot the damn cosmos.

If you do the latter, Newton's third law dictates that the force exerted on the bullet will impart an equal and opposite force on the gun, and, because you're holding the gun, you. With very few intergalactic atoms against which to brace yourself, you'll start moving backward (not that you’d have any way of knowing). If the bullet leaves the gun barrel at 1,000 meters per second, you — because you're much more massive than it is — will head the other way at only a few centimeters per second.

Once shot, the bullet will keep going, quite literally, forever. "The bullet will never stop, because the universe is expanding faster than the bullet can catch up with any serious amount of mass" to slow it down, said Matija Cuk, an astronomer with joint appointments at Harvard University and the SETI Institute.

(Excerpt) Read more at lifeslittlemysteries.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ammunition; banglist; physics; science; space; spacescience
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1 posted on 02/25/2012 3:44:09 PM PST by U-238
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To: U-238

The libs would try to confiscate it.


2 posted on 02/25/2012 3:45:44 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: U-238
What Would Happen If You Shot a Gun In Space?

This is a no brainer. If you shot a gun in space, you would rip a whole in the space time continuum and we would cease to exist. DUH!


3 posted on 02/25/2012 3:49:07 PM PST by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: U-238
Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot. Modern ammunition contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that will trigger the explosion of gunpowder, and thus the firing of a bullet, wherever you are in the universe.

BIG assumption. There is no guarentee that phsyics, and thusly chemistry, is a constant everywhere in the universe. All I'd need to do is adjust the Planck Constant just a bit, and the results might be that upon pulling the trigger, Bugs Bunny would peek out the barrel with a little BANG flag, kiss you on the nose, then dive back into the barrel.

Much hilarity ensues.

4 posted on 02/25/2012 3:50:53 PM PST by Lazamataz (If unemployment helps the economy, like the W.H. says, then CONTRACTING CANCER MAKES YOU HEALTHIER!)
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To: U-238

My head hurts.


5 posted on 02/25/2012 3:52:27 PM PST by yarddog
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To: U-238

Well, the outer space bullet will “stop” if the bullet does hit something, and even gas clouds could slow it way down.

Nobody will hear the gun going bang in outer space, however.


6 posted on 02/25/2012 3:52:37 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Sometimes progressives find their scripture in the penumbra of sacred bathroom stall writings (Tzar))
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To: U-238

I sure am glad they cleared that all up finally.


7 posted on 02/25/2012 3:52:46 PM PST by Bullish (12-22-2012)
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To: U-238

I would think that the gun (and trigger puller would ) would be propelled in the opposite direction forever unless attracted by a nearby by celestial body...the irony is that we would be more attracted to the more massive bodies, as counter-intuitive as that might seem.


8 posted on 02/25/2012 3:53:27 PM PST by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: Lazamataz
There is no guarentee that phsyics, and thusly chemistry, is a constant everywhere in the universe.

You are absolutely correct.In 2010,A team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England has uncovered evidence that the laws of physics are different in different parts of the universe
9 posted on 02/25/2012 3:54:30 PM PST by U-238
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To: U-238
With so many possible movie plotlines to consider, one question remains: Why are there so few space shoot 'em ups?

I miss Firefly.

10 posted on 02/25/2012 3:57:04 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the fascists.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

In space, no one can hear you shoot.


11 posted on 02/25/2012 3:57:40 PM PST by mkmensinger
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To: U-238
Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot.

I knew NASA would attempt to convince us of something ridiculous like this since they staged that space flight 50 years ago and claimed that the earth was round.

What will they try next???

12 posted on 02/25/2012 4:00:10 PM PST by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: U-238

Holy crap! Can you point me to that article????!?


13 posted on 02/25/2012 4:00:47 PM PST by Lazamataz (If unemployment helps the economy, like the W.H. says, then CONTRACTING CANCER MAKES YOU HEALTHIER!)
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To: U-238
Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot.

I wonder about that, will guns really fire at any temperature? If your ammo's trending down toward absolute zero, will it start to fail on you?

14 posted on 02/25/2012 4:01:02 PM PST by eclecticEel (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: 7/4/1776 - 3/21/2010)
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To: U-238


15 posted on 02/25/2012 4:01:40 PM PST by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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To: mkmensinger
In space, no one can hear you shoot.

You can in the Hollywood part of space.

16 posted on 02/25/2012 4:02:13 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
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To: mkmensinger

Are you allowed to carry concealed in space?


17 posted on 02/25/2012 4:03:04 PM PST by beelzepug ("Blind obedience to arbitrary rules is a sign of mental illness")
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To: HiTech RedNeck
and even gas clouds could slow it way down."

Actually, I believe a bullet would be one of the slowest
Particles in space anyway and the nearest gravity well would suck it in.
In fact I don't think it would even pass the moon before the Earths gravity would pull it back down.
Apollo TLI velocities were faster than a bullet from a gun.

18 posted on 02/25/2012 4:03:04 PM PST by Falcon4.0
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Or you screaming, if it bites you :-)


19 posted on 02/25/2012 4:03:29 PM PST by rabidralph
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To: U-238
What would happen if you shot a gun in space?

According to this documentary, not much. Click
20 posted on 02/25/2012 4:03:46 PM PST by Krankor (eenie meenie, chili beanie, the spirits are about to speak.)
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