Sniping is weaponized math. Although a .50 caliber sniper rifle bullet can fly as far as five miles, a host of factors including gravity, wind speed and direction, altitude, barometric pressure, humidity and even the Coriolis Effect act upon the bullet as it travels. Even worse, these effects increase the farther the bullet travels. A successful sniper team operating at extreme distances must do its best to predict exactly how these factors will affect the bullet and calculate how to get the bullet back onto target.
* At 3,450 meters, the bullet would be expected to drop 6,705 inches (558.75 feet). The bullet is diving an average of nearly two inches per foot of forward travel at the end of the shot
* Bullet flight time, from the muzzle of the Canadian sniper’s gun to target was just over seven seconds.
* The bullet was traveling at 940 feet per second when it hit (below the speed of sound)
* the bullet hit with 1,472 foot pounds of energy, greater than most M16 bullets at point blank range.
* At 400 yards, a .50 caliber bullet will be nudged 2.5 inches off its path by a five mile an hour wind
* At 3,800 yards that balloons to an incredible 366 inches (30.5 feet).
* humidity, rifling of the gun, temperature, location on the earth all affected the shot
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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