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
Probably and no. Probably, you could add lift to a bullet. That sounds like a solvable engineering problem. As several other people have pointed out this interferes with rifling, but damn the current design, we’re trying to innovate!
No it would not increase the range of said bullet. Once the bullet leaves the barrel no more energy is being added to it, no useful forces are being applied. Your tiny wings would create an upward force, but it would do so at the cost of drag. In physics, you get nothing for nothing, so the energy to lift the bullet has to come from somewhere. That means the previous energy that largely was moving forward is now moving forward and up, fighting not only wind but now gravity.
Incidentally, bullets do have some upward momentum when they are fired. This makes them move in an arc, not a downward curving line.
That being said, you wouldn’t want the bullet to have additional lift. Think about it this way. If I’m at point A and I’m shooting at point B, my bullet needs to travel from me to B. What is better, if my bullet travels in a more or less straight line, or if my bullet travels in an arc? Your bullet would have to travel quite a bit further if you’re shooting in an arc. Moreover, you now need to accommodate for the arc when you are aiming. Like I said earlier this is already somewhat true, bullets do move in an upward arc and they also will drift in the direction of the spin. This arc would have you aiming somewhere in the dirt. You’d practically need a mount that could adjust in degrees to hit anything. Which is exactly what artillery does.
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