Bullet drop formula?

I've been searching for like an hour online and I can't find a formula to calculate bullet drop.

I don't need tables, I'm doing it for an assignment for my trig class so I have to do the math myself.
Any ideas? I think I've calculated all the actual data I need, I just don't know exactly how to put it together.. Thanks.

If you pull the trigger and see some dirt fly up in front of the target raise your front sight. Just saying
 
It's a slope formula with the added distractors of velocity, gravity, time - it could be even more complicated with spin and wind over distance. It's a 4 dimensional slope equation. Remember before there is drop there is rise (ballistic jump) so you have a parabolic/ballistic slope.

But we do understand, the bullet doesn't actually travel 'up' during the rising branch, right? That's just because of the angle between the line of sight and and the bore. The bullet is being acted upon by atmospherics from the time it begins to move from the case, and is being acted upon by gravity from the time it leaves the barrel- so, it's dropping from the moments the tail passes the crown, it just has the illusion of a rise because POA/POI is not 0m.
 
But we do understand, the bullet doesn't actually travel 'up' during the rising branch, right? That's just because of the angle between the line of sight and and the bore. The bullet is being acted upon by atmospherics from the time it begins to move from the case, and is being acted upon by gravity from the time it leaves the barrel- so, it's dropping from the moments the tail passes the crown, it just has the illusion of a rise because POA/POI is not 0m.

I was making it easy ... it's actually a straight decreasing parabolic function based on the angle of the barrel, speed, weight and twist of the bullet, with a few other added distractors/forces working on the projectile besides gravity...

What you are saying is true - a bullet fired from a perfectly level barrel is being acted upon by gravity in a perpendicular manner from the instant the projectile is clear of the sides of the barrel - but gravity is mitigated by velocity and spin, which are mitigated by atmospherics and friction....
 
And so dies the "Bravo's couldn't pass the math portion of the Charlie course" myth.
 
Mara I don't think that is the app from my post. That's "Bulletflight" from Knights. It was pulled completely out of the Apple App Store in the last... year and a half? Then in the App Store it was replaced by a more water down version. You could also install it from Knights web site. The software download has been pulled off that site also now. Knight actually sells a "ballistic computer" now.
http://www.knightarmco.com/bulletflight/index.htm
 
Mara I don't think that is the app from my post. That's "Bulletflight" from Knights. It was pulled completely out of the Apple App Store in the last... year and a half? Then in the App Store it was replaced by a more water down version. You could also install it from Knights web site. The software download has been pulled off that site also now. Knight actually sells a "ballistic computer" now.
http://www.knightarmco.com/bulletflight/index.htm

Not sure which one it is, it was the only one I had in the clipart vault ;)
 
ATrag is the tits, it's a PDA ap. It has more variables than some other programs and puts you DEAD on. Like MOA accuracy to 1,000m.
 
Anybody got a solid ballistics book/reference? I understand the math well enough and I've been through 100-level mechanical physics, but I've never really had the fundamental mechanics driving internal/external ballistics torn apart in detail.
 
Anybody got a solid ballistics book/reference? I understand the math well enough and I've been through 100-level mechanical physics, but I've never really had the fundamental mechanics driving internal/external ballistics torn apart in detail.

Computational Ballistics III


Edited By: C.A. BREBBIA, Wessex Institute of Technology, UK and A.A. MOTTA, Brazilian Navy Research Institute, Brazil


Price: USD170.00
ISBN: 978-1-84564-077-4
eISBN: 9781845642815
Pages: 256
Book Series: WIT Transactions on Modelling and Simulation
Series Volume: 45
Published: 2007
Hardback

The study of computational ballistics is one of the most challenging scientific endeavours, not only because of the diversity of time and space scales involved in practically all problems, but due to its interdisciplinary character. Interest in ballistics has grown considerably recently as a result of the complexity of the political and military situation in many parts of the world.

The classical subdivision into internal, external and terminal ballistics now encompasses numerous applications on how to model and protect against accidental or man made explosions. Many other civilian applications of ballistics are also of growing importance as impact, crash and blast problems are a by-product of more sophisticated techniques involving dimensions and speeds impossible to achieve a few years ago.

This volume contains papers presented at the Third International Conference on Computational Ballistics . The volume covers the following topics: fluid flow aerodynamics, interior ballistics, terminal ballistics, experimental mechanics/ballistics and field testing, new developments in computational techniques, and systems and technology.

site:
http://www.witpress.com/978-1-84564-077-4.html

site link will get you to the contents and preface through another link.
 
Troll,

I appreciate the link, but the material seems to be more at the postgrad/postdoc level. I'm looking for something around the 200-300 level. More like a mechanics text with a focus on ballistics, but without all the retarded "If we assume [frictionless surfaces, rods of infinite length, atmospheric conditions are negligible, etc]" statements and actually start discussing the meat of those assumptions.... if that makes sense.

Cool material being discussed there - stochastic modeling on a 60mm, data mining on mil systems, and counter-mortar ssytems are all cool, just not quite what I'm looking for.
 
Troll,

I appreciate the link, but the material seems to be more at the postgrad/postdoc level. I'm looking for something around the 200-300 level. More like a mechanics text with a focus on ballistics, but without all the retarded "If we assume [frictionless surfaces, rods of infinite length, atmospheric conditions are negligible, etc]" statements and actually start discussing the meat of those assumptions.... if that makes sense.

Cool material being discussed there - stochastic modeling on a 60mm, data mining on mil systems, and counter-mortar ssytems are all cool, just not quite what I'm looking for.

Okay... I give up... I out geeked the math geek.... I am ruined and should go into hiding.:eek::(
 
The Troll is officially too smart for Shadowspear, he should be banned. Chop too.

So, if I prove I'm a dumbass and not a witch, I can stay and you'll ban Chop?:D
Proof of dumbassedness = exiting perfectly good aircraft in flight using CARP.
Proof I'm not a witch... Chop turned me into a newt, twice.

See ya later Chop... looks like you get an unplanned 1 week vacation from the site...:ROFLMAO:
 
So, if I prove I'm a dumbass and not a witch, I can stay and you'll ban Chop?:D
Proof of dumbassedness = exiting perfectly good aircraft in flight using CARP.
Proof I'm not a witch... Chop turned me into a newt, twice.

See ya later Chop... looks like you get an unplanned 1 week vacation from the site...:ROFLMAO:

OK, deal. The Troll stays, Chop goes.
 
Easiest thing, a ballistic calculator, they got 'em for PC and smart phones. No math involved, it does it all except inter bullet data and velocity. Some even have a nice graph.

Troll, just out smarted Mara,,,,,,,,,,,,, he is smart and why not., When a good looking guy is turned into a troll by a witch (Chops). It makes all the much more neater for the witch when the victim remembers what they were like. Another reason not to mess with the Witch.
 
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