A Bullet Fired¡­


Manny Gomez pulled the trigger of his .9mm Glock.

A bullet fired horizontally will hit the ground at
approximately the same time as the ejected casing;
however, the horizontally fired bullet will have a
much higher velocity downward. Therefore the
downward velocity components Vy at t=0 are
the same Vy=0 for both bullet and casing.

Johnny Washington was pissed off by his mother¡¯s attitude. She just didn¡¯t have a clue. Talk¡¯n ¡®bout how she was gonna send him to live with his auntie Jessie in Texas if he didn¡¯t strieighten up and fly right. Always trippin about him not going to school, and when she found about him being jumped in to the Westside Crips, she just lost it. Calling him a thug and a knucklehead.
Johnny was sitting on the sofa eating a bowl of Cap¡¯n Crunch , watching Spongebob Squarepants. His mother stood over him pointing a finger, wearing her white nursing assistant uniform. She changed when she got that cna card. Thinks she¡¯s some doctor or something.
¡° You listening to me Johnny Ray Washington?¡± She says. ¡° You keep watching TV and not looking at when I talk to you¡­ I swear for God I will slap you into next week.¡±
He stops eating; looks up at his mother.
¡°Why you bug¡¯n, ma?¡± He asks.
¡°I told you if I find out that you are still hanging with gangs your butt is off to Texas.¡± Her finger is in his face. Her fist on hip. She means business¡­
He puts down his bowl, stands up and puts on his Dodgers baseball cap. Go Dodger blue. No, checked that¡­ He smiles. Go Crip Blue.
¡° I anit hang¡¯n with nobody.¡± He tells her. ¡°Cept¡¯ TJ, Lemon and Randy.¡±
He heads for the door. She looks at him. 16 years old, blue football jersey, blue jeans and black, white and blue Reebok¡¯s laces untied.
She calls to his back, ¡° You want to end up like your brother? Dead before 18?¡±
He stops, turns his head and looks over his shoulder at her. Twisting around like that causes his belt to tighten. He feels the hard metal of his .9mm, stuffed in the small of his back, pinch his flesh. He was strapped. He wouldn¡¯t go down like his brother.
¡°I won¡¯t end up like Terry, mama.¡± He says. ¡° I¡¯ll end up like my pops.¡±
¡°Your daddy? No ones seen that good-for-nothing in ten years.¡±
¡° ¡¯Exactly.¡± He says, throwing up his gang¡¯s sign. ¡° Peace out.¡± He leaves.
Tears stain her cna uniform.

Aerodynamic coefficients are vary hard to obtain.
A gun fired vertically¡­the bullet after sometime
reaches a summit where the velocity is zero and then falls
back.

Manny Gomez looked down at the smoking gun in his hand.
¡°Damn.¡± Escaped his lips.
His ears rang from the loud noise of the shot. His eye¡¯s watered because of all the gun smoke.
It takes Manny 5 seconds to realize that Victor had raced up to him in his candy blue, low cut ¡¯92 Impala.
¡° Get in the car, fool.¡± Victory is yelling over and over again.
Manny sticks the glock in the waistband of his baggy khaki pants. The hot barrel burns his skin as he jumps in the car. Victor speeds away.
¡°You did it bro¡¯.¡± Victor says and pounds on the steering wheel with excitement. ¡°You smoked that Crip, homes.¡±
A.9mm bullet travels at a speed of 1200 fps.
Manny sits back in the seat and watches the city s flash by as Victor floors it. He thinks about his father and the coming home party everyone put on for his father last night.
In Manny¡¯s family if you are not 18th Street you are nothing. His father, uncles, two brothers, sister and even mom are 18th.
Last night was the first time he had seen his dad in five years. Enrique Gomez had served his nickel at San Quentin prison in Marin County, California. His third year in he was stabbed in his upper right thigh during a race riot between the blacks and browns. It had given Enrique a limp. Other than that he had not changed much thought, Manny.
When his father saw him sitting on a beer keg in the back yard smoking a joint, he said to Manny.
¡° I hear you haven¡¯t smoked anybody. You better man up and do it soon. And the blacker they are the better, Manillo.¡± He rubs his 14-year-old son¡¯s head, and then joins the party.
Newton's first law:
"Every body persists in its state of rest or of uniform motion in
a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state
by forces impressed on it."

¡° You hear me, Manny?¡± Victor punches him in the arm. ¡° Five-O lit us up fool.¡±
Manny turns around in his seat. Two LAPD black and whites on their tail. Victory floors it. Manny pulls his gun.
¡° Don¡¯t bitch up, Victor.¡± Says Manny to his brother with a thin smile. ¡° Man up. Were 18th. La Familia.¡±
****************

Johnny Washington was still pissed at his mom as he walked toward Armstrong Park in the Crenshaw district. He was thinking so hard about what life would be like for him in Texas that he failed to realize someone thirty feet away was point a gun at him.
He felt the impact before he heard the shot.
A bullet travels faster than the speed of sound.
********************

Enrique Gomez is lifting free weights and drinking beer in his garage when his wife runs through the adjoining kitchen door up to him.
¡°Babe? Babe you have got to come see this¡­¡± She is nearly out of breath. ¡° Manny and Victory are on TV.¡± She runs back inside.
Enrique races after her.
When he enters the living room he finds his wife sitting on the sofa sipping a bear smiling as she watches the TV screen.
He looks at the TV.
A news chopper is holding a wide shoot of the north bound 405 freeways. Victor¡¯s candy blue impala is racing up the freeway at speeds clocked between 85 and 100 miles per hour. Two CHP units and four LAPD cruisers follow close behind, snaking around vehicles on the freeway.
Enrique sits down next to his wife.
¡°Get me a beer.¡± He tells her. ¡° And call everybody so they can watch this shit. Man oh man. Do you know how many points they get in the joint for something this. THAT¡¯S MY BOYS. YEAH!¡±
¡­Terminal velocity proportional to the drag experienced
by the bullet at point of impact is the difference of flight time squared
by drift¡­