How Can Two Bullets Fired from the Same Rifle Collide Midair?

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Hi!

I have been trying to figure out this problem for hours now. If I want two bullets discharging from the same rifle to collide in midair with just a change in the angle of elevation. Can you show the time interval needed? I think that this question is interesting enough to be posted. Thanks.

According to the rules of the forum I will post my own attempts to solve this problem. What I have done so far is write down the projectile motion equations, say that their final position must be equal for a collision to happen and of course the acceleration vectors. These does not seem to be enough. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
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feb2_sg said:
Hi!

I have been trying to figure out this problem for hours now. If I want two bullets discharging from the same rifle to collide in midair with just a change in the angle of elevation. Can you show the time interval needed? I think that this question is interesting enough to be posted. Thanks.

According to the rules of the forum I will post my own attempts to solve this problem. What I have done so far is write down the projectile motion equations, say that their final position must be equal for a collision to happen and of course the acceleration vectors. These does not seem to be enough. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hint: The condition for a collision is for position (horizontal and vertical) to be equal for both bullets at the same time. Give us your equations of motion and we'll try to help you.

AM
 
Excellent. I think that I would find this place to be very helpful indeed. By the way, what software do you guys use to post equations on the board? I am thinking of using Maple 10? Or do you guys have a standard? ;p

By the way, I appreciate the help. The homework has been handed in but I would still like to hear from someone. I am taking 4 physics courses and frankly, I am a little nervous. But if I pass this semester, I am virtually guaranteed to be ok for the rest of the year. This is definitely a critical point for me.. ;p
 
I am going to be posting the equations really soon. Say, is anyone here studying Quantum Mechanics? I am in my introductory course.
 
I guess the equations will have to wait. I am working on my Optics homework and won't be done for a while. It is encouraging that people are finding this thread interesting enough to read it.
 
Forget it. I am so swarmed with work right now I just can't be adamant on solving every question that comes my way.
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
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