Would A Bullet Really Knock You Backwards? DEBUNKED
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- čas přidán 14. 04. 2023
- Is it a movie myth or factual physics? Will a bullet hurl you into the air or throw you across a room?
Learn the science behind what happens when you're shot with a bullet and understand the physics of this widely held belief.
#debunked #funphysics #learnscience #moviemyths
can a bullet really knock you off your feet?
can a bullet push you backwards?
does a bullet push you back?
can a bullet knock you down?
will a bullet knock you down?
do bullets knock you back?
do you fall back when shot?
do you fall if you get shot?
what happens to a bullet when it hits a body?
how hard does a bullet hit?
do people get thrown back when shot?
CREDITS:
Stu K - Researcher | Illustrator | Producer | Presenter
Jacob T - Researcher | Writer
Ross G - Illustrator | Editor | Animator
Robin M - Guest VO
MUSIC CREDITS
Epidemic Sounds
SOURCES
scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.ph...
sciencing.com/seat-newtons-se...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8956990/
link.springer.com/article/10....
www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners...
crimefictionbook.com/2016/04/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%...
5:42 "We fire the whole bullet. Thats 65% more bullet per bullet" (Cave Johnson CEO Aperture Science) 😂
Was looking for this! Thank you xD
"Cave Johnson here"
Unfortunately 97.86916% of bullet images are the entire bullet.
“Science isn’t about why, it’s about why not!”
Will blocking the end of a gun actually make the gun explode?
Aha very good suggestion! Thank you 👌
Probably . Maybe some guns that are not airtight will not explode ,else you just made a pipe bomb .
@@DebunkedOfficial yes debunk this
I'm sure it some cases it will. If, for example, there is a projectile stuck in the barrel from a previous misfire, depending on the power of the load, and the quality or lack thereof of the gun itself, it definitely can explode, and has been documented in the past. On the other hand, pardon the pun, if someone just stuck their finger in the end of a barrel, that was then discharged, unless the gun is defective, it is virtually impossible...
This would be an awesome one to explore! There are many myths surrounding this particular subject...
@@dkaloger5720 it would also depend on just how tight the obstruction is, quality of the gun, etc, etc... Would be an awesome episode to explore!
This was one of the many things that stood out for me when watching saving private Ryan. Suddenly people getting shot wasn’t a corny, over-acted war movie trope. It showed people just collapsing like a sack of potatoes when hit
And even the potato sack reaction isn't that realistic. Some people fold, others don't. It's not that uncommon for people to not even know they were shot for a little while.
@@curteaton see this is what always annoys me! Being shot in the chest, even in the heart, does not mean instant incapacitation!
So in face-to-face scenes where the good guy shoots the bad guy and they drop their gun, in reality the bad guy can totally get several shots off!
ofc they not gonna show in movies like this that when someone is shoot in neck, that he chokes in his own blood, in horror movies that where 18+ they made it realistic
Bishop Gaming Bullets punch holes so you bleed out. That is what they are suppose to do. The only time I have ever seen a bullet shove a body back was a butt shot buck deer that got hit in the hip bone. All other times the bullets just punch holes and I have also seen a buck deer get heart shot with a .30-30 keep going for 80 to 90 yards before dropping. I have decapitated rattlers, shot armadillos and squirrels and they don't die right away or they just flop around and twitch. Animals are tough. I would assume the same for human beings getting shot. Some may drop right away but most won't die right away even if they drop. The only way to ensure that a threat is stopped is to put accurate fire in vital areas.
@@curteaton doesn't that depend on bullet size, though, I mean, someone shoots you with a .50 cal you probably notice right away.
I think the absolute best moment was seeing Eriana's Vow, the fancy bone-white hand cannon animated here - a seriously nice weapon from Destiny 2.
they put the according firing sound too
I remember watching videos of people getting shot in my conceal carry class. I was amazed at how some people carried on even after being shot a couple of times. Not only did they not fall backwards they continued their fight for life.
Yeah, that was the major reason the military adopted the .45ACP. The .38s soldiers carried as sidearm did not have the stopping power and assailants would continue through and wound or kill even after being dealt a mortal wound. But, a human fist is not the same mass as a human and they, (human fists) regularly knock humans down. Bullet energy and expansion is what you should look at.
@@ronaldharding3927 My philosophy is “a wounded adversary can still shoot back”.
@@craigritchie8470 true that
@@craigritchie8470 Exactly. The only way to ensure that a threat is stopped is to put accurate fire in vital areas.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. That's why police usually drops an entire mag on someone.
As a hunter I've seen large game animals react in all sorts of crazy ways when hit by large caliber rifles (actual large caliber rifles, not the tiny 5.56mm rounds the media tries to portray as large caliber). I've seen them jump, flip, etc. But I've also seen them walk away without even flinching.
Any and all weird movements were most likely the animal flinching from being shot. As you have stated, they can just ignore being shot and move on fine. Big game has enough body mass to absorb that kenetic energy. Because of newtons laws you the shooter would feel as much recoil from your rifle as what your shooting would from the bullet. If anything your target would recieve less kenetic energy due to drag on the bullet slowing it down but this is negligable at shorter distances.
@@QueueWithACapitalQ Hollywood never said it was the kinetic energy of the bullet causing the blast.
Yep as an Aussie who hunts Roos, pigs, goats and wild cattle. animals (and I’m assuming humans also) absolutely get launched in the air, do flips. Ect.
Obviously it’s some sort of reaction that forces the muscles to jump up, and wig out.
But yeah, seldom do you just get a stand still drop to the floor shots.
nitro express lesgooo
Try a .375 H&H magnum hollow point.
The info is great. Thanks for including links to scientific papers. I also must say that the animated graphics are great. Not only do they do a great job of visually reinforcing what you're saying but the facial expressions on the cartoon people are entertaining. Keep it up. As for another movie myth to debunk, what about all those hackers who break into security systems they've never before encountered by spending 5 minutes writing up a virus or running password breakers on a single laptop. What are the realistic times for programming a virus, running a password cracker, or hacks for getting past known bugs in popular OSs and security programs?
We've actually made a video along these lines about taking down the internet czcams.com/video/oQLUu3xEVno/video.html thanks for those comments! 😊
4:56 was that the Eriana's Vow handcannon from Destiny 2? I don't know whether to be ashamed for recognising Destiny weapons in other media or just impressed considering I've barely used it lmao
Yeah. It was.
I lost it when the NPC pulled out the e-vow
That large flat bullet animation made me laugh out loud XD
As a person who grew up with no internet supervision I already knew the answer but wanted to see how you explain it and I'm amazed I really like your videos 😊
That sounds suspicious... but okay.
@@lasercraft32By that they meant being able to watch stuff like people being shot in an r rated movie or smth idk
Now imagine several violent attackers charging you and your government has limited your magazine capacity....
I loved the cameo of Destiny 2’s Eriana’s vow. Super good stuff lol
Thanks for commenting and well done for spotting it!
When I was 6, I was accidentally shot by my grandpa when we went hunting (it was really an accident and we laugh about it now). I don't know if it's because I was still small, but the shock really bolted me backwards about 6ft. I didn't feel any pain because I was in shock. I just watched my grandpa panic and cry, and my grandma rushing to me to call an ambulance.
Thanks for commenting and sharing! Where abouts on your body were you shot?
@@DebunkedOfficial Right shoulder. It went right through...
@@IKEMENOsakaman lucky, was it a hunting round? it did not expand because there isn't enough flesh?
@@IKEMENOsakaman most likely it was your own muscles tossing you, it must have compressed muscles to send a signal, a bit like when you touch an unsafe power outlet, your own body convulsed, a sort of involuntary jump perhaps.
Imagine having to explain that
I always assumed it was just supposed to be the reaction to the pain of the bullet causing their bodies to spasm dramatically rather than the actual force of the bullet... I can only assume getting shot is a very shocking and alarming experience (assuming you don't die near instantly from the hit).
That is what I thought but to be fair there are some films with comic knockback.
But with pain you imagine you would drop fairly rapid.
Instant death only if brain smashed (not a clean shot), or cerebellum. Nowhere else. Even a heart shot gives victim 10-15 seconds life.
most times people just flinch and then fold up and fall when they are, as the saying goes, dead before they hit the ground. When they aren't killed instantly they still fall down but it looks like they stumbled on something and fall flat on their faces and stiff like a falling tree. Some times their arms twitch as they go down like something stung their fingers but other than that I've never seen anyone spasm and jump into the air backwards.
I always took it to be the shock factor. Like if a cat suddenly meows right beside you when you didn't even know the cat is there. No cats meow has enough energy to knock you sideways, yet it can happen.
pain isn't always felt instantly when major wounds happen, like getting, shot, stabbed. crushed, or a limb bitten off by a shark@@stephencunniffe823
I heard the story from a guy who was working as a doorman at a nightclub that he got shot at the door at short range while he was also wearing a bulletproof vest. He claimed that it felt like he had received a strong punch at the point where the bullet hit.
thats about what happens when you get shot with a vest. the bullet may not pierce it, but the impact is all distributed there. hence why high caliber rounds may kill you regardless even with vests that should be able to tank it, a .50 rifle may not bore a fist sized hole on your torso, but it will break all your ribs.
Yes, at point blank range a bullet proof vest won't save you necessarily from injury.
Broken ribs, and deep blunt force injuries can occur with these vests because there is a limit to how much energy they can absorb.
@@WiltsKiwi You should mention that you mean bullet proof vests with soft armor. Because what you said is only applicable for them. Bullet proof vests with plates (hard armor) can leave you unharmed getting shot with a .55 magnum point blanc, because the plate will not deform until you shoot with a 50 bmg or something alike. Soft armor = saves your live eventualy by the cost of health but comfortable to wear even hidden wearing is possible. Hard armor - plates = Save you from any kind of injury and keep you fighting and conscious even when hit as long as nothing too powerful goes through the plate. But they are bulky and uncomfortable to wear and very obvious to see.
In layman's terms, a speeding bullet (~10g at ~300m/s) has about the same momentum as a thrown apple (~100g at ~20m/s).
Someone throwing a fruit at you alone won't knock you over, except maybe through disorienting you or getting you to wince in pain.
Bullets work the same way, it's not the momentum that will knock you down, but the pain might
I love that comparison 😆
But the transfer of kinetic energy from the bullet will destroy some of your internal tissues or organs, perhaps fatally. A hurled apple will never do this.
@BradynLee ft lbs=damage though
But force involves the square of the velocity, so no, the bullet imparts much, much more force than the apple.
@@garethbeare8741 is this directed at me?
I've always known this is a myth, and I'm glad you've finally put it to rest, for the rest! Sometimes fiction is preferred over fact, so keep it up Hollywood...
I second the suggestion of a debunked episode on exploding guns from blocking the barrel. This is right up your alley Stu!!!
Thanks for yet another great video...
Thanks! Yes that seems like a popular suggestion so far!
@@DebunkedOfficial I would like to further suggest going through the process of identifying each point of failure in that myth as well. Obviously the finger in the barrel would be pressure blasted out right before being struck by the bullet. But if that point of failure was corrected by let's say welding a plug into the barrel, what would break next? Sealing that, what would break next? All the way until we get to potentially rupturing the barrel.
I've shot deer at 200yards with a .300 mag and that fucker flipped like he was hit with a truck
@@DebunkedOfficial Check with (and check out) Kentucky Ballistics youtube channel before you do this one. It's an incredibly dangerous myth to test - it might literally kill you to confirm it.
@@maxsoregon ok mr. sarcastic... You don't know me. I was forced to hunt when i was 12 years old, killing animals is not my cup of tea. What i do know is, every animal you kill, will come back to haunt you... Sweet dreams!
Being a hunter is not the only method of learning about guns, and I've had my share of them.
P.S. I don't even own a couch! 😉
Used to think this especially with shot guns, but it's only within the last 5 months I realized that doesn't make any sense. It's such a small surface area moving at that speed.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Are there any other classic movie tropes / myths that you think we should look at in another episode?
Consider being stuck in the ass with a pin… you’ll jump two feet out of your chair 👍🏻
Khumo Kwezi Mashapa The only difference between a bullet and shotgun with multiple bullets is the size of the hole or holes depending on the distance to the target. They both punch holes.
The projectile has the same amount of energy as the gun during recoil (equal and opposite reactions).
This means that the maximum force the bullet can push the target with is the same as the kick felt by the shooter.
@@BillyWitchDoctorDotCom Not quite, it's not a unidirectional force. It's a common mistake, but you have to account for the upward downward and sideways recoil as well. Then you also have to account for what he firearm itself absorbed before the shockwave hit's your arm. I've fought in a war. The larger Calibers and especially .45 ACP knocks people backwards from the force of the bullet. And Hollow points are illegal under geneva even .45 ball rounds will knock back a man. Maybe not a moose or a bear, but a man for sure.
I remember a video where a researcher was shoot human skulls, filled with ballistic gel. The skull actually rebounded toward the shooter. The power of a large caliber handgun (I don't know about some of the truly insane weapons out there) only has about the same power as a good hard punch. I imagine most of that energy would absorbed by the damage it does to the body, and should it go straight through, less the transfer of kinetic energy.
Mythbusters tackled this one. They pretty much busted it, even demonstrating that a shotgun slug will only knock a person backward about a centimeter.
Correct! MYTH Busted!
The law of equal and opposite reaction. Used to be taught in schools…
@@nigel900 It still is, but you're talking about something that is very small being launched very quickly and we don't generally have to deal with that in everyday life. We have fantastic brains for ballistic motion, but as things get further and further away from the kind of situations we evolved to handle, it gets harder and harder to have an intuitive sense for.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade You’re argument isn’t with me, it’s with Sir Isaac Newton 👈🏻
I think they mentioned that the imparted force is less than the recoil of the firearm.
No, I never thought about it! And now it will bother me every time I see it in a movie! Damn my scientific curiosity! 😂
Lol, I hope it doesn't spoil too many movies?! Just remember your in the world of Hollywood 🤩
Makes me feel better about Valorant funnily enough.
So the appropriate physical reaction to being shot is a widened eye and raised eyebrow to show disbelief.
😲 indeed 😆
And optionally clutching of the wound.. Especially if it is in the heart area.
@@joostdriesens3984 Of course! 😉
Guess that depends on whether or not you hit something hard (like armor or bone) and on which type of ammunition is used. A hollow point round will have a better stopping effect than a full metal jacket no matter which body part it hits.
I remember the adoption of this trope in films, around the 1960s. Previous films had people collapsing after being shot, without sudden involuntary gymnastics. This might have been because WWII had involved most of a generation in war, and so more people would have witnessed people actually being shot. People even claimed the new backwards acceleration was more 'realistic', often confusing momentum and kinetic energy. At 5 minutes you state that the effect on the shooter would equal that on the victim. In fact, the effect of recoil is greater, as the projectile is accompanied by a smaller, but significant, mass of high velocity gas and particles from the cartridge, which does not reach the target. At longer ranges, the projectile will have been slowed by air resistance as well.
All in all, a very informative and well explained production, thank you.
Depends on the mass and speed of the projectile, as well as it's frontal area. Something like a 5.56 will usually just zip right on through you (the sound is the most memorable part of that experience). Whereas a .50bmg will blow a chunk of meat outta you and turn you half-way around before you hit the ground. When someone gets hit with a small pistol cartridge, like a 9mm, you usually won't even notice the hole unless you happen to see the ripple or you see their clothes pulled into it. The damage on your end is honestly not that eventful most of the time, unless you're using a full size rifle cartridge (what most people would consider a hunting round, like .308 and up) or larger. Shotguns will throw a chunk of your assailant at the wall behind him, assuming you're not using birdshot. As for "throwing" the only time i ever saw that happen was with a 25mm near-miss, but it also had enough pressure to suck the eyes out, there's never much left when those direct hit anything living. Usually when something living suddenly stops living as the result of a bullet, it'll drop and stiffing up, sometimes there'll be a convulsion, but it goes away in a few seconds.
So many people don't understand basic physics principals applied to gun calibers that it's mind blowing. For all intents and purposes I'd say that velocity is to horsepower as mass is to torque. The faster the bullet, the more intense penetration; the larger the bullet, the more damage and slower travel time.
Newtons 3rd Law, the law of equal but opposite reaction.
(Brevity is the soul of wit) 👍🏻
What world do you live in where you’ve seen this shite?
czcams.com/video/b4sVQ_ZwI04/video.html 0:58
@@thc_freebaser Errr....NORMAL people don't go around shooting everybody.
I think there's two things going on with this myth.
The first is that if your target isn't standing stock still waiting to be shot, but is, say, running for cover or towards you to do some mayhem or away from you, even, if you hit them in the leg, say, as that leg is supposed to supporting their weight and propelling them forward, the complex operation of bipedal running gets effed up, and the target falls down, often in a spectacular way, as they've got that forward momentum trying to move them forward as they're falling down. Also, if you hit a major artery and the body loses blood pressure suddenly, that can result in limbs not being able to hold you up because your muscles and nerves fail, and that can result in a nasty spill.
The other thing going on is Hollywood, or rather theatre. The whole edifice of Hollywood is about trying to tell you what's going on on the screen without _saying_ what's going on, and 'realism' always comes in second to that, if not third because 'Rule of Cool' has just arrived and wants first place. Everything on the screen is about telling the audience that the guy who caught the bullet is dead, so you can forget about him, he's not getting up to interfere with the rest of the scene. So, typically, instead of dropping to his knees as his blood pressure falls, dropping his gun, and moaning for his mama, which takes screen time away from the action, the actor windmills like he's been hit by a truck and drops out of shot in a second. No doubt about it, he's gone, off to join the choir eternal, time to line up the next mook.
Put a good vest (class 4 or better), on a decent "heavy bag" (180 lb or higher), and give it a shot. There *is* substantial movement, but most of the "stopping power" of a bullet comes from medical "shock" effects instead of the impact.
Explains all the stories of people getting shot not realising they've been shot, even in the middle of a firefight. Lots of stories of being shot sound very similar: "We were taking cover and trying to spot the enemy when suddenly my arm felt very numb, I looked down and I had a bullet hole in my chest just below my shoulder."
The amount of first hand accounts that read like this I always found odd. But it totall makes sense if the kenetic blow just isn't that jarring - I think intuitively we all assume it would feel like getting hit hard with a bat or a mallet or something, which is something we can all imagine.
Very well arranged video images
Outstanding and magnificent visual editing
Excellent and splendid narration skills👍
I was once hit by a 7.62mm AK-47 round in the back, but, luckily, it was a ricochet (still in one piece, but heavily mangled) and it lost most of the kinetic energy already and it didn't penetrate my clothing even. But, I did feel a hit like someone gave me a pat on the back, a bit stronger than the usual. I can imagine the amount of kinetic energy it would have had if it was a direct hit though...
I think it would all be about the energy dump into the body. A high velocity pointed round would go straight through, but a low velocity round that expands on impact, and dumps all its power into the target, might knock it back a bit??
Sound logic there 👌
It could explain why it’s shotguns more often than not producing this effect rather than an equally powerful battle rifle.
I’ve also thought about what would happen if someone were shot with a 40mm grenade launcher loaded with an 18-round .22lr hornet’s nest round, all loaded with .22lr rat shot. The rat shot itself isn’t well known for penetration into people, but the combined 1,620 Joules of energy would probably be enough to knock someone well off their feet.
I've heard real war veterans swear up and down that they watched people get knocked back by .45acp and various rifle rounds. But .45acp seems to be the main culprit. And nothing about them indicated they were lying. I spent a while investigating this when i was younger, collecting detailed info from their accounts and finding ways to reproduce the results without acting or violating physics. And i found what i believe to be the answer which no one seems to be talking about. It comes down to something most of us have probably experienced at some point but never made the connection. When i was little, i played baseball allot. When wearing catcher's armor, i could take a baseball to the chest and not flinch. But when i got hit in the chest while playing outfield, i often fell back. Even believing the baseball actually knocked me back. Nowadays it's pretty clear that the "being knocked down" sensation is a nervous reaction to taking a punch to the chest. I think most of can imagine that if we took a soft ball fast to the chest, we would move back as if we were being knocked back. Yet we also know that actually being knocked back violates the laws of physics. So try to imagine your nervous reaction to taking a .45acp or .357 magnum to the same place. I am fairly confident that this is what eye witness acounts are actually describing.
The "bulletproof vest" arument doesn't need to be made. As long as the bullet doesn't exit the body shot, it will transfer all its momentum; the effect is the same.
I'd also argue that being accelerated by 18 cm/s backward while at the same time having the wind knocked out of you IS enough to topple you over. Not enough to trow you back, but make you fall back.
Two additions. Find a video about the making of Robocop and you''ll see demonstrations of how some of the stuntmen were pulled backwards into scenery using cables operated by the crew. Also, in the UK programme UK, it was revealed that when shot, people immediately fall down largely because they've seen this happen in movies. They think it is what they ought to do.
Imagine being trained to be shot
@@Sieur-Chevaliere_Arkan I suppose the military are schooled in what to do if shot. I know that they have clothing that is bullet proof to an extent but a biggish bullet would still bruise.
Soldiers in combat have described a large variety of reactions to being hit by a bullet, from being thrown back, to being throw forward, to folding and collapsing, to slumping down. I'll believe the testimony of people who have actually seen the effects of bullets. In other words, when people are hit by bullets, they might do a lot of things. As Yogi Berra said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is."
They are throw forward because the body react
@@cx24venezuela What I said was that people shot fall in various ways for a variety of reasons. Soldiers in combat would be the best evidence of that. Yogi Berra was right. You can believe this video or the actual experiences of soldiers. In filming Hondo, John Wayne stopped a gunfight scene when the guy he supposedly shot folded and fell to the ground and told the guy people always fall backwards. The bit part actor, named Leo Gordon, pulled up his shirt and pointed to a bullet scar and said, "When I was shot, I folded and fell down." People do a lot of different things when shot. There is no fixed rule.
the video mentions that things with VERY high caliber could throw you back a little. but at that point youre reaching heavy machine gun caliber levels which being thrown backwards is the least astonishing part of witnessing someone getting shot by it, as these guns can literally bisect someone with very few rounds and even a single shot will punch a hole through them or tear of a limb. even near misses can be deadly as the vacuum trail and sonic boom they leave can shred skin and eyes.
Yogi didnt say all the things he said
Well done. Correct, easy to understand and a bit amusing. I appreciated the 'special case' of artillery weapons.
The only quibble I make is that of bullet 'proof' (resistant) vests (or armor). The shootee is sometimes injured by the blunt force trauma transferred through the vest. Not uncommon to sustain severe bruising, internal or superficial; broken bones are far too common.
Some studies (don't ask) indicate that normally a shooting recipient will fall forward, due to the balance of the body.
I’d assume that the key deciders would be the speed being perfect as to not cause cavitation , but perfect to impart the most energy into the tissue through its initial impact and the friction afterwards.
My father was in the army during WWII and he told me many times what the effects of certain small arms would have on a man when he was hit. Someone hit with a 9mm would just fold up and drop. Men hit with a British 303 or German 7.62 would stagger forward because the bullet would have so much force it would generally pass right through. But the American .45 from a colt 1911 or more especially a Thompson sub machine gun would stop a man dead, knock him back and if close enough could lift him off his feet. He had seen it happen many times. The .45 used was a big soft heavy slug that had a big impact and made a big wound. The German Spandau machine gun had such a high rate of fire it would make a man dance on the spot with the multiple impacts and could even cut a man in half. Hence the term Spandau ballet. The early versions of the British Bren gun were very accurate, so much that they could be used as a sniper rifle on semi auto mode. On full auto they could put many shots in the same hole so yes, they were capable of knocking a man backwards.
So sorry, but its not debunked at all, it is possible.
There wasn't a German 7.62mm.
So thank you for putting the idea in my head that there are people out there serving sentences, possibly life, for a myth that was used as evidence.
The direction of the body falling would have nothing to do with a court case. It would depend on the forensics report of the wounds, calibers and ballistics. Blood trails also factor in.
That explains a recent story I read about an alien encounter where upon the person discharging his firearm out of Fear and a need for self Defense reasons against the aformentioned stated that they noted that the being seemed
to be uneffected by the impact
or impacts where without the facts of this video presented here would seem on it's surface to be unplausable or something made up of the encounter.
What became of the target that was stuck at the scene afterwards remains unknown except for a single bullethole in his fence.
Would be interesting to see how bigger rounds would perform if the target was wearing hard enough armor to stop faster and heavier projectiles.
This would obviously not apply to the movies as you dont really see people firing 20x102s, 950jdjs, 2 or 4 bores... at their enemies but seein how they poduce as much energy on impact as 10-15 shotgun slugs hitting simultaniously they may actually have some form of knockback and they would still qualify as handheld weapons
Garand Thumb has a video showing what happens if a human ballistics gelatin torso is shot by a tank round. And not even those rounds are knocking the torsos down. Just "explode" them into chunks. So i don't think eny bullet will. 😁
Thx! I always thought…”come on really!” That’s impossible! Guess I was right! But watching the visual effects in the movies is awesome. NEVER STOP BLASTING THE BAD GUY AWAY IN THE MOVIES! Lol!
Lol, I totally agree, but for the right kind of movie! Thanks for commenting! 👍
I agree with the assessment that the reactions where people tumble backwards for a fair amount of distance are more along the lines you would see with the body reacting to sudden and catastrophic injury, rather than the bullet itself pushing the person over. Especially if the bullet wound was, or nearly was, immediately lethal. (Discounting the people sent flying since that is ridiculous.)
The only people who have any questions, slept through high school physics.
Equal and opposite reactions.
If the stopping power of an expanding bullet were to hypothetically expand enough to lift a human body while also moving through, that wound cavity would be gnarly to say the least. There wouldn't be much human left 😬
A very good point 🧠
And a normal military round will leave hole the diameter of a pencil at the front - and of a dinner plate at the back. If it hits the bone in the limb, it will rip the limb off.
Although the actual concept of 'stopping power' is probably something we need to look at (debunk) too 🤔
Having shot a real gun I felt like shooting the gun itself is more likely to knock the shooter back rather than the bullet reciever
Indeed, like at 4:55 😂
Shooter has to cope with not just with projectile momentum but also that of the expanding hot gasses venting out the muzzle. Also, bullets experience drag and bleed velocity and momentum
4:57 I saw that Eriana's vow, cool reference
Well spotted 😉 Thanks for watching 👍
The gun being Erianas vow from destiny 2 is hilarious
Although the physics have debunked the blowback theory after being shot… I hope the movie makers continue to use this special effect for entertainment!
I've got to say I agree, but only for the right kind of movie though. Any other movie myths you would like us to investigate?
Yes, people are "knocked backwards". And usually are knocked over backwards, when shot in the front; however, as the physics says, it does not throw them backwards or lift them off their feet. As a combat veteran who has actually seen many people shot in real life, they do get knocked over. The force is about equal to a punch, so if you are braced you can easily absorb the energy, but if you are standing flat a punch will knock you over.
yeah but usually it would be by the pain or shock from the hit not the impact force of the bullet
@@raven4k998 doubt it. Seen a corpsman get knocked on his ass after being hit on his body armor. Pain isn't fast enough to account for that, and shock wouldn't have enough time to set in.
5:42 next thing to debunk, only the bullet, and not the whole cartridge is fired. I don't know how many times I've seen this
I had to explain that to a lady who had no idea what it meant when I said I reloaded cartridges. The scary thing is our politicians are this ignorant.
I knew all this and yet I still fall for it and have to think about it over and over again. Thus, thanks for the comprehensive video, that I can rewatch whenever I get confused by this, again. :)
Glad to help. Thanks for watching and for future rewatches 😁
I think it's realistic not because the bullet pushes you.
But because diving prevents you from getting hit more. Also the shooter would continue to shoot until you drop.
It adds up.
Equal and opposite reaction. Whatever the shooter feels in recoil is the maximum possible force the target could theoretically feel and it drastically reduces in force, the further away the target is.
This whole video reminds me of one of the last scenes from Django: Unchained. Jaime Foxx at the top of the stairs telling the house maid to tell the house mistress goodbye, then the maid says "Bye Miss Laura" and Jaime shoots the mistress and she flies back into the room behind her like a Looney Tunes sketch lmao all it needs is the Wilhelm scream and it'd be perfect.
Caliber & distance contribute to the strike-effect. Also, placement. The energy transfer at maximum velocity when striking bone (sternum, pelvis, ribs…) will drive the target back.
I always hate it in movies when people get shot in the head or get instant killed by bullets they still fall gracefully onto the ground. Irl if someone dies like that they'd just collapse to the ground. But it's understandable in movies since they need to brace themselves to fall down. And most times in Hollywood they fall to their knees first slowly then collapse.
I was nearly murdered in 1982 and I was shot twice with a .44 caliberhandgun. The 1st round that hit me went into my leg but did not hit a bone. There was no reaction and I didn't even feel it. The bullet just passed through. The 2nd round that hit me struck my spine paralyzing me for life. The round that struck my spine knocked me to the ground with force. I literally fell head-over-heels. It was like getting hit with a 1500 mile an hour pillow. BOOM to the ground with emence force.
I'm a survior that has experienced both reactions.
You should've used the clip from MIB where Will was flung through the air
That was hilarious when the cartoon guy got a huge smile on his face when he got that huge gun barrel. That's made my day 😂
I remember seeing a review of a game on G4 years ago, (I absolutely don't remember what game) where you were shooting enemies with arrows off an ancient ship (or a wall, or something) and then they went flying through the air spinning🤨😆
I was given the opportunity to fire a 20 mm gun. Had to wear both earplugs and an ear muff. The sound was so loud that I could feel it pull the flesh from the bones in my face, especially the nosetip. Not so much that it was painful but it was a feeling that I had never experienced before.
A hit from 20 mm would probably push the impacted body part backwards. Maybe in the form of pink mist.
Pretty sure it would send the body flying...
...well, half of it anyway.
The only one I can realistically think of is the Elephant gun my step-grandfather used to use. That used to dislocate his shoulder when fired, he said. I've seen videos where it knocks the shooter backwards.
I love the recoil to the shooter part has eriana’s vow
A barrier of metal (like the old Clint Eastwood movie) would prevent the bullet from being "slowly" decelerated by the squishy body, and transfer it's force directly/immediately to the body.... the force and speed of the body being forced backwards depends on the speed/mass/force of the projectile. And there are some awesome loads out there.
You've seen people who are FIRING those guns get shoved backwards, so how far the target gets knocked back is mostly dependent on how efficiently that projectiles force is transferred to the target body.
Body armor cushions that impact, but something solid like a metal plate will transfer the bullets force directly to the body, pushing it back. Mythbusters did a show on bullet impacts against some "metal barriers" 2011 season, 1st show, where a metal post on a 500 pound merry-go-round is knocked backwards by handgun fire (and larger).
I think getting knocked off your feet is reasonable enough but flat out being flung into the air is just goofy.
I recall reading that some people have actually gone to jail because juries believe these kind of myths. I do not remember the details anymore or even if it was this particular myth.
This video nicely sums up what I've learned about terminal ballistics. 👍
But it should be noted, even if you're wearing a soft ballistic vest or hard plates, you should still expect broken ribs, internal bleeding, etc. Because despite their light weight, bullets are absolutely hauling ass. Energy=Mass × Velocity, so a standard M855 FMJ 5.56 NATO round, weighing 62 grain (4 grams), being fired from a 20 inch barrel will be traveling at approximately 3,100 ft/s (960 m/s). This means, at muzzle velocity, even if you have rifle rated plates, you will one way or another, still have to experience over 1,370 ft-lbs (1,860 J) of force concentrated into the area of a pinky finger. For comparison a punch from an average person would probably come in at approximately 110 ft-lbs (150 J) of force. And a cannon firing a 6 lb projectile with a 1¼ lb charge from a 16 inch barrel would deliver 5,390 ft-lbs (7,307 J)
KE is 1/2 M V^2 and momentum is M V (just to be accurate). So for the same momentum (kick), the lighter the projectile the greater the energy and it's the energy that does the damage.
@@programmer1356 agreed, thank you.
Having hunted both large and small game with large caliber rifles I can attest to this. Whenever an animal does a dramatic response to bullet impact, it's caused mostly by muscles contracting/responding to nerve hits etc.
Could someone flinch from pain in such a way that it would look like knock back? Probably depends on where they were hit and whether any other factors affected them noticing they were shot. I remember one police video of a man with a knife who was very obviously under the influence of some chemical. He was shot after not obeying commands to drop the knife, fell to one knee (forward), got back up and got shot again. As for body armor it is common for rounds on the high end of what the armor is intended to stop to still break bones or cause other internal injuries without penetrating the armor.
Tldr: depends on the caliber, length of the barrel, armor and such, but you probably won't be sent flying
This needs a little correction.
When you're shooting a very large, big game hunting round, like a .577 Tyrannosaur or a 4 bore, you get 200+ lbs of felt recoil into your shoulder, and shooters do/will get knocked over and lose their grip on the rifle. The force of impact is high enough to rip a gel torso off its stand, into the air, and often flip over. At that point, the bullet impacting the body creates a small explosion and a temporary vacuum cavity that forcefully expands across your organs; it's strong enough to shove a jug of water to break/bend a folding table.
Great Explanation!! at 5:00 is the most basic law!
Andreas Whal, a Norwegian physicist shot him self with a gun in a pool in a scientific experement in a series called: med livet som innsats = with life at risk. He has also done things like climb a bluilding with vacium cleaners, bungee jumpe with two books with pages tangled and more
I always thought that it was a reaction to getting shot, kind of similar to reaction to to getting burnt on an hand.
At 5:34 DO NOT HOLD YOUR REVOLVER THIS WAY. The gas exiting the cylinder gap is doing so at a minimum of 15,000 PSI (a thousand times atmospheric pressure or so) for even low pressure types of ammunition, up to two to four times that for higher pressure rounds, and the gas can cause injury or even remove parts of your fingers that you leave across the cylinder gap.
It's all about shot placement, the way the body is in movement before being struck and how the person's body responds automatically (nerves, reactions and adrenalin). Observations in service led to us referring to people just being 'floppies' or going floppy on being hit. Animals react in the same way. Often when a deer has its head down browsing and unaware of the hunter, after being shot it will just stagger forward a few paces and then drop to the ground. If a deer is aware of a threat it may run on for many metres after being shot, powered by adrenalin. IME people respond in the same manner.
There is an amazing eyewitness account by Captain William Mercer of the Royal Horse Artillery that describes his fellow officer Captain Bull being hit in the shoulder by a French cannonball during the battle of Waterloo. Bull is not even knocked off his horse by the impact, which simply smashed his entire shoulder backward but left him still upright. Mercer and his brother officers had to carefully lower Bull off his horse to the ground where he died shortly after. We are told however that musket balls with their much lower velocity did knock men backward particularly if they hit something solid and there are reports of men being thrown backward onto the men behind them. Though this might just have been a consequence of the victim falling backward rather than being thrown backwards and there was only a small gap between the ranks in close-order formations at the time so if the man in front of you is hit then he has to fall somewhere...
Mostly depends on bullet weight and speed of bullet . Large bullet and slower speed equals more knock down power . This is the reason the army used the 45 auto for so long , it would knock someone down .
I've seen a two hundred pound feral hog shot with a 50 BMG. They experience a small entrance wound and an exit wound about the size of a volleyball. They fall over, but are not knocked backwards very far- maybe an inch or so. The bullet expends in energy by creating a temporary stretch cavity and exiting the body.
Are the wild hogs particularly dangerous, difficult to stop? Are they usually hunted with 50 cal, or was that a special case?
@@andreasandersson2994 thats a special case, 50 BMG(caliber for antimateriel rifles and machine guns) on anything that isnt considered big game hunting is just overkill...
@@crustybomb115 I thought that those hogs might be extra crazy and you want to make sure you stop them... Anyyway, i envy you Americans who can do fun stuff like that.... Take your personal anti-tank rifle and hunt escaped hogs. (At least it used to be concidered anti-tank, e.g. the converted Lahti L39.)
respect to the guy who got shot to debunk this myth
Nice and confirmed what I'd long suspected!
I think some people buy into the "knock down" thing with bullets judge based on seeing animals go ass over tea kettel if taken on the run or their poised muscles fire. People usually crumple, keep moving, or drop like their strings were cut. In addition to the physics, a projectile that spent all its energy knocking a target down would be shitty at penetrating anything, and we know even steel armor has to be too thick to move in to do more than cover the heart, lungs, and airway well.
Thanks for the information and the cartoon in it is so awesome, keep it up
Thank you 😊
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that an output knockback force of 18cm/s won't move even a static object with a person's mass 18cm. This is because 18cm/s means it requires a full second of application of force to move something 18cm... and the amount of time it takes a bullet to stop inside (or exit) a body is significantly less than 1 second. Its generally going to be under 2 digits of miliseconds. Meaning the amount of deflection force it _could_ deliver to you is probably under 2cm, which your body will _then_ compensate for.
5:00 - something dinged in my head. I saw that gun! Eriana's Vow from Destiny 2! :D Nice.
Well spotted! You are amongst the first to identify it 😉
Hold on: what about the pain experienced due to the wound? Would that not be a factor in it knocking you over? Also, if it were to hit the spine, it may sever the spinal cord causing your legs to fall from beneath you. Perhaps there is some embellishment from movies in the being thrown back, but I still don’t think you would be standing after that
This is dealt with at the start of The Way through the Woods (the best Inspector Morse novel), where Morse first meets the new pathologist Grayling. He asks if the victim couldn't have spun round when hit and she says something like "When people are shot, they fall down. They do not 'spin round' or fly backwards through the air in slow motion".
A large calibre high velocity magnum rifle, firing a heavy , soft lead projectile might actually knock a person backward , but definitely not get them air born . This assumes that the bulk of the projectile's energy is dissipated on the target.
You tube is full of videos showing lightly built people firing ridiculously powerful "elephant guns" and being jolted backwards by the recoil . It would have a similar effect on the target .
My immediate thought is that if
A) The bullet has enough energy and
B) you're holding/wearing something that can "catch" the bullet
Then it can knock you down.
I am a hunter and one year I shot a dead which was in the air in the middle of a bound. At the time there was no less than 6 inches of snow on the ground. When I walked over to where I shot the deer I noticed that the tracks in the fresh snow had disappeared. From there I could see the deer laying on the ground and took 10 giant steps to it. This is about 10 yards. What actually happened was that at impact from the bullet the deer actually flew 10 yards sideways. The rifle I used was a 270 caliber and the diameter of the projectile is .277 of an inch. Muzzle velocity was 3,200 feet per second. So, how did that deer fly 10 yards in the air sideways. Bullet weight was only 130 grains.
The deer flinched and jumped from the shock. Could just as well have jumped towards you.
Your shoulder would have been crushed by a rifle firing a bullet with enough energy to throw a deer through the air.
Best case to knock someone down would be from a 40mm bean bag round. But that still only acts as a really hard push and not a "throw"
Early 2000's kids with unrestricted internet access would know
Didn't expect Eriana's Vow in this video lmao nice
How about the 2 bore double deuce?
A shotgun with so much kick
Its advised to wear a steel plating where the stock is pushed up against
pls make a video about shotgun damage in long range also thanks for video.
While the Newtonian reaction is definitely significant, there are ways its effect on the shooter can be reduced. The most common are heavy reciprocating parts like the slide of a pistol, the bolt of an SMG, and the whole barrel and bolt assembly of a recoil-operated MG, and muzzle brakes and other devices that direct some of the combusted powder gases to the rear. For some hand-held weapons like bazookas and other antitank weapons the rear of the barrel/launcher is completely open so almost all of the recoil impulse goes into the backblast and doesn't affect the firer at all - which is why you really don't want to stand behind these weapons when they're fired.
The WW2 German panzerfaust was a hand-held recoilless rifle that fired a 15 pound projectile at about 280 feet per second (in the later models), which would absolutely send the firer flying backwards if the recoil was transmitted to him, but since the recoil impulse mostly went into the backblast the firer was spared most of it. Of course anyone hit by that projectile, if it didn't detonate and blow them into little pieces, would be knocked back like they'd been hit by a cannonball.
The noise of a Charlie G is a problem for the gunner. It makes your teeth ring, and the volume the first shot is always a surprise.
Only thing that is capable of reducing imparted momentum on the shooter is the muzzle brake. Slide movent and such just smoothes out recoil or makes overall movements a bit more erratic. When the shot is over and the mechanical components settle back to how they were, the shooter will be moving back just the same speed as if firing a single shot break action
@@davidh9659 If the shooter is floating in zero gravity, sure. But if the shooter is standing on solid ground the recoil impulse being spread out over more time means at any given instant the force being imparted is less which means the shooter's muscles and friction with the ground will be more able to resist it. It's like the difference between a car going 90 mph hitting the brakes vs hitting a brick wall.
@@brucetucker4847 the cycling is over long before your body moves any significant amount or before you can actively counteract any movement. The only difference that cycling makes is that the potentially reduced peak forces might be more pleasant for your wrist/shoulder and much like the car, it might be in better shape. The earth doesn't care tho, it will have changed it's movement in the same way
@@davidh9659 it doesn't matter, the recoil impulse is still spread over a larger span of time. And it's not matter of actively reacting to anything. That's why you do not, in fact, topple over or fly backwards when firing a gun.
It depends on the caliber of the projectile, velocity at impact, weight of the projectile, and the location of the impact on the body. That said, I have seen elk take a pass through shot from a .338 win mag, shiver and stand there. I've also seen the same round impact a shoulder of an elk and drop it like a ton of bricks. There many factors involved with the question. Lastly, a large caliber bullet (.45) at modest velocity will tend to knock things down as energy transfer to the target is significant. Buffalo guns.
I think the idea of falling back when shot is just to give the viewers the impression to being shot. Like how animation squash and stretch character to give the impression of movement.
I already knew this wasn’t true but it’s a lot of fun to go in depth on it
Glad you still enjoyed it 😁 What other movie myths would you like to see us cover?
@@DebunkedOfficial you know one I see a lot and would love to know the real world affect of would be when a human is backhanded by an alien/demon/monster/supervillain and they go flying across the room. What would actually happen to a human body if it were hit so hard in the chest or head so as to fly 15’ backward in the air?
@@Noemo2000 an interesting angle thanks 👌