On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 00:17:57 -0600, "Bill Bright" wrote:
It would be hard to tell, because a rifle bullet is not going to be spin
stableized any more. It would start falling base to earth until the wind
resistance hitting the flat base would start it tumbling. Now if the bullet
shape had the center of gravity foward of the tip to base center point, then
it would fall stable pointy end down and have a very high terminal velocity

No. As Hatcher reported, the army tests showed the bullets were still
spin stablized when they came down (base first). You have to realize
that a .30 bullet leaves the muzzle spinning nearly 200,000 RPM. Even
after gravity has slowed its upward velocity to zero, it is still spinning
at an incredible rate. So gyroscopic forces easily overcome any aerodynamic
tendency for it to nose over and come down point first.

Gary