nothing to add. just thought it was interesting to see in action.
My favorite mythbuster segments are when they prove a law of physics. Like in this case it took them 3 days to set up the experiment just right. Seeing that ball motionless in mid air was awesome.
They’ve done several that had never been physically proven before. Physics said it would work, but no one had invested that much time and money into replicating it in the real world.
I recall one where they shot a bullet and filmed it after it ran out of forward momentum. They got this cool high speed footage of the bullet dropping straight down.
bullet drop
Jamie and Adam were on Neil deGrassi High Tyson Chicken’s podcast Star Talk and Jamie talked about how he wanted to be shot off the back of a moving train but the insurance company forbade it.
Here’s part one-- listen in order if you like: MythBusters (Part 1) : MythBusters (Part 1)
[quote=“aceplace57, post:3, topic:707111”]
I recall one where they shot a bullet and filmed it after it ran out of forward momentum. They got this cool high speed footage of the bullet dropping straight down.
bullet drop
[/QUOTE]No they didn’t, because that’s not how it works.
[quote=“aceplace57, post:3, topic:707111”]
I recall one where they shot a bullet and filmed it after it ran out of forward momentum. They got this cool high speed footage of the bullet dropping straight down.
bullet drop
[/QUOTE]I have to agree with the previous poster. What you describe is not what’s going on in that video.
All trajectories under gravity are curves. Any trajectory that intersects with the planet’s surface and is launched at an angle other than 90º has to be an arc of a parabolic curve, IIUC.
Part 5 where they actually do the experiment.
Even in the aired episode, they were originally going to have Tory (wearing protective gear) take the place of the soccer ball on the truck (at only 10 mph). Apparently they got a call from the producer just before they were actually going to do it telling them that the insurance company had nixed that too.
I guess Tory got a little more valuable since the iconic moment in the earlier seasons when Adam was told the insurance company wouldn’t let him jump off a building, but they were fine with Tory doing it.
More specifically, go to the 4:25 mark at that video.
I guess if a vehicle’s forward velocity is equal to the muzzle velocity, the bullet would just fall straight down.
Because real life is messy, would the bullet slow down, just a little, when propellant gases stop pushing on it? And would friction be noticeable at this scale?
The effect might best be observed at a “toy” level, with a spring-loaded gun that shoots a metal sphere at only a few feet per second, and a vehicle on a track, indoors, in a stage or lab.
My old college physics prof had some cute Rube Goldberg contraptions of this nature, although, alas, never this specific set-up.
Best moment in the entire series. 
Huh? Propellant gases stop pushing the bullet immediately after it leaves the barrel.
Obviously they thought Tory breaking his face was much more acceptable than Adam breaking his face..
Both those clips never, ever get old.