Can you generate lift on a bullet by adding channels or something to it?

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basically I’m curious if it’s theoretically possible to add little channels or grooves into a bullet for air to flow through that would generate any amount of lift which would allow that bullet to travel further?

Just want to quickly add in really enjoying all of these responses where you guys are coming up with little “hacks”. Very fun reading all of these replies!

In: Mathematics

14 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I had a cheapo smoothbore airsoft gun and it would cause the pellets to have some lift during flight. The airsoft gun wasn’t rifled so there was no rotational spin, but it must have put some backspin on the pellets because the pellets would fly up in a pretty reliable pattern. It did allow the pellet to travel further, but it was horribly inaccurate. It would’ve been a better airsoft gun if the bullet just flew straight. The physics of a metal pointed bullet are quite a bit different from a light round airsoft pellet, but here’s a wikipedia article on the magnus effect that can provide some further info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect#

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