The bullet dropped and the bullet fired

Question

Two identical bullets start at the same height above perfectly flat ground. At the same instant, one is simply dropped and the other is fired horizontally from a gun.

Which bullet hits the ground first? Ignore air resistance and the curvature of the Earth.

Accepted Answer

They hit the ground at the same time. Why. Gravity pulls both bullets downward with the same acceleration, and the gun gives its bullet only a horizontal push. Horizontal and vertical motion are independent: the fired bullet's enormous sideways speed does nothing to its downward motion, which starts from rest and accelerates under gravity exactly like the dropped bullet's. Both cover the same vertical distance in the same time, so they land together. The fired bullet just lands a long way away. Numbers. From 1.5 m up, both take about 0.55 seconds to fall. In that time a bullet at 400 m/s trav…

The bullet dropped and the bullet fired

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