# Paintball warriors: Terminal velocity sufficient to splatter a paintball? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296 "2019-09-16T00:19:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/1 "2019-09-16T00:19:24Z")
Say you use a paintball gun to launch a paintball straight up. It will immediately begin to slow due to gravity and air resistance, eventually reaching it’s maximum altitude. At that point it begins it’s decent, accelerated by gravity until reaching it’s terminal velocity. Assuming it lands nearly vertically on a hard surface, will terminal velocity provide sufficient force to splatter the paintball or will it likely just bounce away intact? ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/2 "2019-09-16T02:01:23Z")
Myth busters did an episode on dropping a penny from the Empire State Building. Their calls showed a terminal velocity of 30-50 miles per hour for the penny. Paintball guns launch at about 200-300 mph, so it will be at about 20% of its launch velocity when falling down. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/3 "2019-09-16T03:29:43Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Paintball guns launch at about 200-300 mph, so it will be at about 20% of its launch velocity when falling down. Please show your work. I don’t see that the second clause follows from the first, regardless of whether you drop pennies from tall buildings. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/4 "2019-09-16T03:48:52Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Please show your work. Before I realized that the OP’s question is probably most easily answered experimentally by someone who actually owns paintballs (seriously, anyone?), I found this: [The Physics of Paintball](http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/webproj/211_fall_2014/Dillon_Mills/dillon_mills/General.html) Using the constants listed at the bottom of the page, I calculated the terminal velocity for a paintball to be 22.1 m/s (or just under 50 mph), which seems to square with what **am477494** suggested. Ditto with typical muzzle velocities. Unfortunately, the page has jus about everything needed to solve the problem posed by the OP, except of course for the velocity or force at impact needed to splatter the ball. My gut says the answer is “probably,” but I don’t have the means to prove it. Again, this would probably be easiest to solve experimentally, just by tossing a paintball high into the air (if it can’t survive that, then it definitely won’t survive being shot even higher). ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/5 "2019-09-16T04:17:52Z")
I didn’t say the terminal velocity of a paintball would be radically different from that of a penny; I said the conclusion doesn’t follow from the premise. It still doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/6 "2019-09-16T04:50:53Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > I didn’t say the terminal velocity of a paintball would be radically different from that of a penny; I said the conclusion doesn’t follow from the premise. It still doesn’t. Agreed EdelweissPirate. I should have better cited my work. Usually 80 feet/s or 55 mph is taken to be the minimum velocity needed for the paintball to break (cite : [Paintball](http://www.brassfetcher.com/Paintball/Paintball.html)) But again it depends on the make of the paintball and the surface properties of what it hits. Since the terminal velocity is less than the above cited break velocity, it is likely that it will not break. But it’s not exact science due to the aforesaid reasons. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintball-warriors-terminal-velocity-sufficient-to-splatter-a-paintball/840296/7 "2019-09-16T14:45:20Z")
Hey…cheers! Thanks for the awesome response!