Speed of a falling Paintball?

[Gimmick]

Hello,
This is really a last resort for me. I normaly don't like to post "questionably stupid" questions on forums, because, I know most forums are kept alive by only a few good members who have the time, and the knowlege to answer the questions. But I have not been able to answer this question, or find one pre written on the internet.

How many feet per second will a paintball fall from a hight of 40 feet?

Or;

If, I shoot my paintball down from a tree, at 280 Feet Per Second, will it speed up, or slow down?

Please assume "normal" conditions; air, temperature, humidity, planet, paintball, etc. etc...

I am asking this because, I play paintball with friends, and just recently, the owner of the property said "No more hiding in trees". His reasoning for this was that shooting from that hight "can" increase the paintball's speed up to 360 FPS. Which he said, is enough to break the masks. This is a real bummer for me, because I have always enjoyed hiding up there... And, it give me an advantage. **snicker**

My gun is always set to fire no more than 280 FPS, and I am never in a tree higher than 40 ft. Actually, probably less than 25 ft. but lets go extreme.

So, is this a real concern? I do realize that there are other things to consider, such as falling, if and when they find me and shoot me to pieces. Or, if the branch I'm no breaks. Or if I slip and fall on the way up. Or if I squish some endangered bug on the way up. But, besides those, do I really need to worrie about shooting at 360 FPS?

P.S. I have a professional climbing harnest, and I ALWAYS secure myself before playing, so I don't have to worrie about falling. As far as bugs and branchs go though, I'll have to leave that up to God.

Thank you all, for you time, I look forward to your responses.

- Gimmick

[russ_watters]

If dropped, it'd hit the ground at about 50fps, but 280fps is almost certainly above the terminal velocity, so it would still slow down when fired from a tree.

[Bystander]

"Terminal velocity" at near earth surface conditions is in the neighborhood of 40-50 fps --- give or take a factor of 2-3 for guesses on size.

[Danger]

Echoing Russ here. I worked at a paintball game for a while. You can shoot one of those things from an aeroplane and not do any more damage than you would in a face-to-face encounter.
And if you do want to cause some damage, I can PM you some tips. :devil:

[geenious]

The paintball would slow down if shot from a tree. Because the amount of gravity on an object such as a paintball, is not strong enough to increase the speed of the paintball from 280fps to 360fps in such a short distance. Even if it was shot from a higher altitude it would still slow down cause like I said before, the force of gravity would not be strong enough to increase the fps.

[moose]

The paintball would slow down if shot from a tree. Because the amount of gravity on an object such as a paintball, is not strong enough to increase the speed of the paintball from 280fps to 360fps in such a short distance. Even if it was shot from a higher altitude it would still slow down cause like I said before, the force of gravity would not be strong enough to increase the fps.

Do you realize that you have made a near circular argument and didn't really prove anything, nor even say anything? I think you meant that the force of gravity isn't enough to counter to extreme force of air resistance when dealing with a paintball traveling at such high velocities.


Go to the owner and give him a link to this thread :smile:

[Gimmick]

Thanks a bunch guys, thats what I was hoping to hear! I hope the owner of the land will see it that way too, and let me play in the trees. I'll drop back in and let ya know how it turns out.

- Gimmick

[DaveC426913]

They're saying that being 25-40 feet up in a tree means there's more potential for damage??

Oh guffaw.

Tell them to stand under the tree and you'll drop (not shoot) a paintball on their heads and ask them if they get a boo-boo.

[Gimmick]

They're saying that being 25-40 feet up in a tree means there's more potential for damage??

Oh guffaw.

Tell them to stand under the tree and you'll drop (not shoot) a paintball on their heads and ask them if they get a boo-boo.

LOL!! Naw, my friend was saying that it could increase my shots from 280 to 360 FPS.

Funny though! lol

[Doc Al]

Naw, my friend was saying that it could increase my shots from 280 to 360 FPS.

Even if you ignored air resistance entirely (unrealistic), the final velocity after a drop of 40 ft would only increase to about 285 fps (given an initial speed of 280 fps).

[Mk]

And if you do want to cause some damage, I can PM you some tips. :devil:
So, you're the bastard with the frozen paintballs. I'm going to get you!

[Danger]

So, you're the bastard with the frozen paintballs. I'm going to get you!
Nawwww... marbles. :biggrin:

Kidding, guys. Just kidding. Don't even think about doing that. I was going more along the line of Bouncing Betties, Claymores, sniper rifles, etc..

[baryon]

Isn't it correct to say that gravity would accelerate the paintball beyond 280fps if it was fired straight down? I don't believe that 40ft is a high enough distance for air resistance to sufficiently slow an object that size.

[Doc Al]

Isn't it correct to say that gravity would accelerate the paintball beyond 280fps if it was fired straight down?
See post #10.

[russ_watters]

Besides, whether or not drag will slow the paintball does not depend on time, it is simply whether the drag force is greater than the weight. It may not slow much because of how little time it has, but it will slow some.

[Willgarcia]

If I remember right the speed of an object is created by the force times the mass of the object and gravity will only afect the speed and force of travell due to earth pull atraction in order to have the less amount of gravity resistant you will need to make a throw in a perfect vertical position 90 degrees but eventually de inicial force will die due to the most significant friction on earth air, therefore the object will eventually lost if initial force and will be carried down by is mass that is afected by gravity and that will resoult in terminal velocity x mass of the object so that will be less than 200km/h with the force of the mass created for the time travelled if I keep wondering about this I can say that terminal velocity is achieved in less than 100 meter free fall. In the other hand if you would like to add what gravity affects a body mass the pull is 9.7234 Meters/s but you can not add more force than the one used to displace the object but becouse of the point of realease the object may go further more distance but with the same initial force reduced by gravity and friction

[DaveC426913]

If I remember right the speed of an object is created by the force times the mass of the object and gravity will only afect the speed and force of travell due to earth pull atraction in order to have the less amount of gravity resistant you will need to make a throw in a perfect vertical position 90 degrees but eventually de inicial force will die due to the most significant friction on earth air, therefore the object will eventually lost if initial force and will be carried down by is mass that is afected by gravity and that will resoult in terminal velocity x mass of the object so that will be less than 200km/h with the force of the mass created for the time travelled if I keep wondering about this I can say that terminal velocity is achieved in less than 100 meter free fall. In the other hand if you would like to add what gravity affects a body mass the pull is 9.7234 Meters/s but you can not add more force than the one used to displace the object but becouse of the point of realease the object may go further more distance but with the same initial force reduced by gravity and friction

I realize that English is not your first language but this is one long run-on sentence. I tried to rewrite it, but got lost. Attention to punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure will greatly help you make your point.

Also, this post is four years old.

[Willgarcia]

I realize that English is not your first language but this is one long run-on sentence. I tried to rewrite it, but got lost. Attention to punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure will greatly help you make your point.

Also, this post is four years old.

Thanks for reading, I did it at 4:00 am never got the chance to revised. thanks will keep on mind your sugestions