ballistics, environmentWhat effect does altitude have on ballistics in general? Will a higher altitude net a gain in muzzle velocity? A loss? No change? Effective range changes? Bullet Drop? What would be the best standards for measuring this?
You can plug different altitudes into this calculator. Basically, you have less drag at higher altitudes, from fewer air molecules to bump into. That means your muzzle velocity will be the same because drag hasn’t had a chance to affect anything yet, but you will lose velocity more slowly, giving you a higher velocity and less drop at any given distance, and consequently farther range. The effect will be more pronounced the farther the bullet has traveled.
When you look under the covers of a ballistics program (my favourite online one is JBM Ballistics), it ends up boiling down to three key parameters:
Your question relates to the air density, since air density depends on altitude. The other factors affecting air density are temperature, pressure and humidity.
An increase in altitude reduces the air density - the drag on the bullet (the force slowing it down) decreases directly proportionally to this reduction in air density.
Here are the effects you will observe (and a ballistics program will calculate) from a decrease in air density: - no change in muzzle velocity - the bullet will retain more downrange speed - because of this, the bullet will drop (a bit) less
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