01-02-2015, 01:52 AM
Drew Phipps Wrote:There is one other factor in the tumbling of bullets to consider. The reason a bullet's tumble increases as it flies is partly produced by friction, slowing down the spin of the bullet. But since angular momentum is conserved, the bullet begins to (or increases) a tumble around an axis other than its longitudinal axis. It is also partly produced by forces pushing the nose of the bullet sideways unevenly. Those forces can start in tissue. Those forces don't START in air unless the bullet is already tumbling. So the bullet in the PBS documentary had already begun to tumble prior to exiting the ballistic gel.
It just isn't physically possible for a non-tumbling bullet to exit a body and, in mid air, encounter a force that starts it to tumbling.
Suppose a movie camera filmed a tumbling bullet while traveling at the same velocity as the missile. How would you describe the filmed motion of the tumbling alone?