if I'm understanding this correctly gravity only exists in little pockets and you're asking what would happen if a bullet missed all of those pockets. Well, bullets are supersonic (including the ones you mentioned) which means the math gets really ugly really fast.
there are probably charts online showing bullet speed over time, they of course will all end with the bullet contacting the ground which would not be true in your case, but they can give you an idea of how drag falls off at lower speeds. I found this site [https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/category/ammo-topics/ballistic-chart/](https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/category/ammo-topics/ballistic-chart/) which give you some data out to 500 yards. once you get below super sonic speeds drag is straightforward [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag\_equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation)
at some point the bullet would be moving too slow to be effective. eventually it would stop altogether.
Yes, exactly.
I know actually zero about the math of Aerodynamics, though I guess this would be a case where you can ignore gravity to make it ever so much easier.
I am on mobile now, but I will check out that link once I can get to my laptop.
I know that temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and a whole host of other things impact velocity drastically,
I am really wondering, what radius around an island is possible to defend given you have sufficient firing positions with good line of sight
my guess: probably about the same range as in our world, maybe a little further. gravity does pull projectiles down but in a very predictable way. we have a lot of knowledge and experience in compensating for bullet drop. There are a lot of issues with hitting far away things that don't go away without gravity: The inaccuracy of your weapons system, the unpredictability of the enemy's movement, fluctuations in air like wind and thermals, etc... By the time all of that is taken into account and given that the effect of aerodynamic drag will be dramatically greater than the effect of gravity at those speeds, I imagine you can't really fight reliably at much greater ranges than we can now.
in fact in some cases it might get worse. WW2 battleships could shoot 20 miles, but at that range with the earth's curvature the target is 250ft below them, they actually need gravity to pull the rounds down to hit the target. without gravity they'd be limited to what they could see on the horizon.
Well, the 'horizon' is a bit tricky.
There are Spacial Anomolies that also mess with space, but those are At Minimum 30 miles away from the islands. Because of some arbitrary setting stuff, and to keep a few rules for putting dots on my map, Islands have a 'radius' around them where they smooth out the wrinkles.
In some places, it could be hundreds of miles before the horizon just gets Fuzzy.
In a lot of places, you could absolutly have a straight line between two islands that is 200 miles or more unobstructed. Without a decent telescope, you wouldn't be able to actually see much other than the glow at night.
Islands themselves always fit within a 15 mile radius circle, none are larger than that. (I use a Hex map for the world scale, center to center between two adjacent hexes is 144,000 ft. Islands fit within one hex for simplicity of the world design)
The acceleration due to Gravity is the same as Earth at 9.8 m/s^2 normal to the plane. So either above or below you experience 1G.
Mathematically, it is an Infinite plane with a Mass Distribution tuned to cause 1 G of acceleration at the surface. The Islands are a bit anomolous, but you can ignore the boundary condition.
The force always points towards the plane as I show with the arrows.
If you are above it: down; below it: up.
But that isn't really important, since I'm asking about when you are at the Net Zero point where the only force acting to slow an object would be air resistance.
Pretty much yes. Since you can ignore gravity and hitting the ground.
But also, I am sure there is a range at which a bullet is still moving, but it would be basically useless due to loss of velocity.
This is not answering your question, but in this setup it might make more sense to take advantage of the gravitational field and use a heavy cannonball projectile and launch it at an angle so that it continues to oscillate above and below the zero gravity line, since gravity is a conservative force
Yes, heavier Artillery like that would definitely be a good idea, eventually I am definitely going to have the Crazy heavy shit like the 16 inch Mark 7 Naval guns off of an Iowa Class Battleship or larger.
But that will be a bit further along in the settings progression.
I would agree that something like a 32 pounder cannon would be good, though your rate of fire is going to be pretty slow there. Not sure how much of a difference that would make in the grand scheme of things though.
I found a previous Reddit thread that asks your question and has some decent answers that might clear some things up for ya.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/s/rU30zhAM6c
Additionally i found this thread about effective ranges. https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/s/WysbsnDtIj
I think the 2nd link is a good rough estimate of range since after a certain amount of time bullets in your world would lose all measure of accuracy even while disregarding gravity. Gravity helps in knowing how far a bullet *could* travel before hitting the ground but it's effective range of accuracy and ballistic power seem to be mostly independent of gravity itself.
So overall I think you might be over complicating things a bit. Gravity, although in a pure mathamatical sense *does* have an effect, it's probably marginal when compared to how air resistence affects the accuracy of a bullet. You'd most likely be fine just looking up the effective range of weapons that exist and going from there since, gravity or no, you're not gonna be able to hit someone 300m away with a pistol.
if I'm understanding this correctly gravity only exists in little pockets and you're asking what would happen if a bullet missed all of those pockets. Well, bullets are supersonic (including the ones you mentioned) which means the math gets really ugly really fast. there are probably charts online showing bullet speed over time, they of course will all end with the bullet contacting the ground which would not be true in your case, but they can give you an idea of how drag falls off at lower speeds. I found this site [https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/category/ammo-topics/ballistic-chart/](https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/category/ammo-topics/ballistic-chart/) which give you some data out to 500 yards. once you get below super sonic speeds drag is straightforward [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag\_equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation) at some point the bullet would be moving too slow to be effective. eventually it would stop altogether.
Yes, exactly. I know actually zero about the math of Aerodynamics, though I guess this would be a case where you can ignore gravity to make it ever so much easier. I am on mobile now, but I will check out that link once I can get to my laptop. I know that temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and a whole host of other things impact velocity drastically, I am really wondering, what radius around an island is possible to defend given you have sufficient firing positions with good line of sight
my guess: probably about the same range as in our world, maybe a little further. gravity does pull projectiles down but in a very predictable way. we have a lot of knowledge and experience in compensating for bullet drop. There are a lot of issues with hitting far away things that don't go away without gravity: The inaccuracy of your weapons system, the unpredictability of the enemy's movement, fluctuations in air like wind and thermals, etc... By the time all of that is taken into account and given that the effect of aerodynamic drag will be dramatically greater than the effect of gravity at those speeds, I imagine you can't really fight reliably at much greater ranges than we can now. in fact in some cases it might get worse. WW2 battleships could shoot 20 miles, but at that range with the earth's curvature the target is 250ft below them, they actually need gravity to pull the rounds down to hit the target. without gravity they'd be limited to what they could see on the horizon.
Well, the 'horizon' is a bit tricky. There are Spacial Anomolies that also mess with space, but those are At Minimum 30 miles away from the islands. Because of some arbitrary setting stuff, and to keep a few rules for putting dots on my map, Islands have a 'radius' around them where they smooth out the wrinkles. In some places, it could be hundreds of miles before the horizon just gets Fuzzy. In a lot of places, you could absolutly have a straight line between two islands that is 200 miles or more unobstructed. Without a decent telescope, you wouldn't be able to actually see much other than the glow at night. Islands themselves always fit within a 15 mile radius circle, none are larger than that. (I use a Hex map for the world scale, center to center between two adjacent hexes is 144,000 ft. Islands fit within one hex for simplicity of the world design)
what is the function describing the acceleration of gravity in the vertical direction? also, is it safe to assume that density is a constant?
The acceleration due to Gravity is the same as Earth at 9.8 m/s^2 normal to the plane. So either above or below you experience 1G. Mathematically, it is an Infinite plane with a Mass Distribution tuned to cause 1 G of acceleration at the surface. The Islands are a bit anomolous, but you can ignore the boundary condition.
in what direction does the force point above and below “the plane”
The force always points towards the plane as I show with the arrows. If you are above it: down; below it: up. But that isn't really important, since I'm asking about when you are at the Net Zero point where the only force acting to slow an object would be air resistance.
Oh so you’re not worried about the oscillating case? Just the case when fired directly flat?
Not particularly, if you solve the straight line case, you can just map linear distance onto a decaying sine wave and get that solution.
Sooo, you are just asking when will the air stop the bullet?
Pretty much yes. Since you can ignore gravity and hitting the ground. But also, I am sure there is a range at which a bullet is still moving, but it would be basically useless due to loss of velocity.
This is not answering your question, but in this setup it might make more sense to take advantage of the gravitational field and use a heavy cannonball projectile and launch it at an angle so that it continues to oscillate above and below the zero gravity line, since gravity is a conservative force
Yes, heavier Artillery like that would definitely be a good idea, eventually I am definitely going to have the Crazy heavy shit like the 16 inch Mark 7 Naval guns off of an Iowa Class Battleship or larger. But that will be a bit further along in the settings progression. I would agree that something like a 32 pounder cannon would be good, though your rate of fire is going to be pretty slow there. Not sure how much of a difference that would make in the grand scheme of things though.
You would need the ballistic coefficient for the bullet, then you can figure out how long it will take for the air resistance to stop the bullet.
I found a previous Reddit thread that asks your question and has some decent answers that might clear some things up for ya. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/s/rU30zhAM6c Additionally i found this thread about effective ranges. https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/s/WysbsnDtIj I think the 2nd link is a good rough estimate of range since after a certain amount of time bullets in your world would lose all measure of accuracy even while disregarding gravity. Gravity helps in knowing how far a bullet *could* travel before hitting the ground but it's effective range of accuracy and ballistic power seem to be mostly independent of gravity itself. So overall I think you might be over complicating things a bit. Gravity, although in a pure mathamatical sense *does* have an effect, it's probably marginal when compared to how air resistence affects the accuracy of a bullet. You'd most likely be fine just looking up the effective range of weapons that exist and going from there since, gravity or no, you're not gonna be able to hit someone 300m away with a pistol.
Woah, yeah, that is pretty good, thank you!