The daily Alaskan., 1916-05-25
BULLETS IN F-IGHT
Even the Best Aimed Ones Never
 Follow Their Noses.
STRIKE A WEE BIT SIDEWAYS,

The Projectils Travels on a Curve, of
 Course, and It Keops its Axis Always
 In the Direction the Axis Had When
 the Ball Left the Gun.
 1t Is well known fact that bullet never goes straight to mark, but flies in curve on the order of the parabola. But most people think that the bullet Itself follows Its nose and that at first Cwhen the nose Is pointed up the bull let follows 1t and that when the bullet is coming down on the other leg of the curve the nose. is. pointed down.
 This is a mistakes for the nose of a bullet always maintains it's own direc, ton. no matter what the bullet as whole tries to do. That IS, If gun be pointed slightly up, the bullet. when it strikes the target, will not enter 1t per pendicularly by the nose, and the hole made Will be larger than the1buuet is round, for the bullet of necessity must hit in a certain degree Hutwise. or course the reason the bullet does this Is because It has a very rapid rotation given it by the rifles in the barrel which keeps 1t also from turning over and over in the air.
 Another thing that will seem peculiar to most people is the action Of gravity on a bullet. If gun be3fred exactly horizontalIy the bullet will have to be. pulled down by gravity exactly sixteen feet during the first second So if there were no sights on a gun and It was leyeIed by means of q hand level and fired the bullet would hit something exactly sixteen feet below the gun at a distance away equal to the velocity, Of the bullet per second.
 No matter what the bullets velocity. gravity will pull It down sixteen feet during the first second, or If the bullet be,fred upward gravity win take from It's upward velocity thirty-twO feet dur ing the first second.
 The bullet itself keeps It's axis aF ways in the direction the axis had when the bullet issued from the gun. This is the, well known gyroscopic prin ciple made. use of in the gyroscopic compass and the monoraiI car-that rotating body win maintain its axis of rotation in the. same direction unless a moment of force be applied to it.
 But what actually happens with the modern high powered rife? Does 1t shoot bullet that goes in sideways?
 To a slight extent 1t may be stated that the modern army bullet does do that very thing. Its velocity, however, Is so enormous that the gun. barrel does not have to be elevated through so large an angle, and consequently the bullet enters fairly on it's nose, though not squarely so, at all ordinary ranges,
 The same may be said of the bigger guns. They have rifiing In them and so give rotation and gyroscopic action to the projectiles. But Q mortar does not. A mortar shoots something al most straight up in the airrand lets it fall down. As the mortar IS too short harreled to be rifed the top of the pro- jectile would hit Q target long dis tance away, but for shot almost straight up in the air to fall right down of course the bottom of the projectile would strike first. The mortar projec- tiles are generally round, so that 1t will not matter how they strike
 The reason a bullet cannot be made so that It will always enter a target squarely on its nose Is that for every ,range differently shaped bullet would have to De manufactured; also the bul let should be symmetrical so that the 1 air will exert no disturbing influence on it's distorted parts.
 A bullet has distinct curve like that of a baseball, due to Its rotation, and this curve Is independent of she parab ola given by gravity. The smoother and more polished bullet is the less is this curve. But the action of the rIhing in a gun barrel puts little grooves In the bullet as 1t goes through the barrel. These catch the air as tha bullet roiates and causes. the curHu spoken of.
 If the bullet be rotated in the direc ton of the hands of clock the curve will make the bullet go to the left ot the exact point aimed Qt The effect is so small, however. that 1t does moi have to be taken into account in thu manufacture of rifles and ammunition