A bullet would have to actually hit the ear for what you describe. But I guess you have a vested interest in not at least trying to understand this.
You understand that the space-time we inhabit, or at least I do, has a very high resolution? The bullet can be any distance at all from the ear as it flies by.
Yes, I understand that a bullet would have had to actually hit him for it to cause a bullet wound. Which he clearly did not have given how minor it was and quickly it healed. And that he hid the real doctor’s report.
This isn’t Hollywood. A graze wound from a 5.56x45mm round at supersonic velocities doesn’t leave a small, easily healed cut; it transfers a portion of the bullet’s kinetic energy into the tissue, in a radiating pressure wave that tears, shatters, and emulsifies the surrounding tissue. Even the slightest amount of contact transfers enough energy to cause wounds that take a substantial amount of time to heal, even more so with an ear that is primarily cartilage, which doesn’t, itself, heal.
A graze would have resulted in needing reconstructive surgery that would have taken months to heal and would have had visible bruising much longer than his ear bandage was worn. Graze from fragments or debris? Sure, that’s a lot different than his claim. And it’s at least equally likely that he cut his ear when tackled, which would be consistent with the seen wound as well as the lack of visible scarring or need for reconstructive surgery.
You’re playing with words. We have video of what happened.
Not playing with words. The 5.56mm bullet had around 1.8kJ of energy, mostly from velocity. Dumping even a fraction of that into human tissue can cause rather devastating effects, with additional effects from the pressure wave from traveling at supersonic speeds. It’s not like in the movies or video games where just getting “winged” is not a big deal.
If it were that far away, contact would not happen, and thus no injury. To be clear, a graze or tangential gunshot wound requires contact to occur. The hydrostatic shock occurs only when there is physical contact to allow a transfer of kinetic energy.
You argue as if you can be equally injured in a car crash by being a bystander because of the energy of a speeding car. Like, no?
A key part that you’re missing in that comparison is the area over which the contact occurs. So, it would be roughly like a 1956 VW Beetle hitting someone in the ear at 60mph. However, this also isn’t quite accurate or the full picture because it would require somehow getting an equivalent ratio of surface area contacting the ear, which would be much greater than ear-sized on the VW because a 5.56mm round is so small, as well as the additional forces exerted because of the sonic blast wave that the bullet causes.
Bullets work by transferring immense amounts of energy to a small surface area. High-velocity bullets (those flying at supersonic speeds, like all modern cartridges that are not specifically designed to be subsonic), have an additional effect of causing hydrostatic shock (some research suggests that this may, to a lesser degree, occur with subsonic rounds as well). What that means is that a component of the sonic blast wave participates in the transfer of energy to tissue (we’re big bags of water), causing a radiating pressure wave that evidence shows can cause fractures in bone not impacted by the bullet, as well as damage to nearby internal organs and nerves.
Another great way of understanding the importance of surface area to the damage inflicted by rapid kinetic energy transfer would be Blendo. A battle robot built by the MythBusters guys that, as a “weapon” used a flywheel weighing roughly 100lbs (45kg) that was spun up to around 400RPM. The energy in that flywheel was transferred to the opposing robots in a very small surface area, causing such devastating effects that they were asked to withdraw from the competition.
This is very similar to how bullets work and one of a number of reasons that even a graze from 5.56mm bullet that hadn’t first lost a significant amount of its energy is very unlikely. The wound being able to heal in a week with no visible scarring (not to mention suppression of any medical records from being used in the investigation or revealed to the public) makes that possibility even more vanishingly small.
I understand what they’re claiming. That, however, is not what happened. You don’t need to get a second doctor to “corroborate” the nature of your injury if your story is true. The first one would have been fine. But they hid that.
And the injury clearly wasn’t bad enough to need actual extra consultation.
When moving at supersonic velocities, barely nicking something is still enough to transfer enough energy into the ear to, at minimum, leave visible scarring, more likely, require reconstructive surgery.
A bullet would have to actually hit the ear for what you describe. But I guess you have a vested interest in not at least trying to understand this.
You understand that the space-time we inhabit, or at least I do, has a very high resolution? The bullet can be any distance at all from the ear as it flies by.
Is this clear?
Yes, I understand that a bullet would have had to actually hit him for it to cause a bullet wound. Which he clearly did not have given how minor it was and quickly it healed. And that he hid the real doctor’s report.
It grazed him. What is difficult to understand here?
This isn’t Hollywood. A graze wound from a 5.56x45mm round at supersonic velocities doesn’t leave a small, easily healed cut; it transfers a portion of the bullet’s kinetic energy into the tissue, in a radiating pressure wave that tears, shatters, and emulsifies the surrounding tissue. Even the slightest amount of contact transfers enough energy to cause wounds that take a substantial amount of time to heal, even more so with an ear that is primarily cartilage, which doesn’t, itself, heal.
A graze would have resulted in needing reconstructive surgery that would have taken months to heal and would have had visible bruising much longer than his ear bandage was worn. Graze from fragments or debris? Sure, that’s a lot different than his claim. And it’s at least equally likely that he cut his ear when tackled, which would be consistent with the seen wound as well as the lack of visible scarring or need for reconstructive surgery.
Then it wasn’t a graze wound. What if the bullet is 0.1mm further out than would be needed for a “graze”?
You’re playing with words. We have video of what happened.
Maybe you’d prefer it was a Sasquatch with a directed energy weapon.
Not playing with words. The 5.56mm bullet had around 1.8kJ of energy, mostly from velocity. Dumping even a fraction of that into human tissue can cause rather devastating effects, with additional effects from the pressure wave from traveling at supersonic speeds. It’s not like in the movies or video games where just getting “winged” is not a big deal.
So even if it’s 4mm away? 5mm? 6mm? 7mm? 8? 9?
You argue as if you can be equally injured in a car crash by being a bystander because of the energy of a speeding car. Like, no?
You just like reading what you type, not making sense.
If it were that far away, contact would not happen, and thus no injury. To be clear, a graze or tangential gunshot wound requires contact to occur. The hydrostatic shock occurs only when there is physical contact to allow a transfer of kinetic energy.
A key part that you’re missing in that comparison is the area over which the contact occurs. So, it would be roughly like a 1956 VW Beetle hitting someone in the ear at 60mph. However, this also isn’t quite accurate or the full picture because it would require somehow getting an equivalent ratio of surface area contacting the ear, which would be much greater than ear-sized on the VW because a 5.56mm round is so small, as well as the additional forces exerted because of the sonic blast wave that the bullet causes.
Bullets work by transferring immense amounts of energy to a small surface area. High-velocity bullets (those flying at supersonic speeds, like all modern cartridges that are not specifically designed to be subsonic), have an additional effect of causing hydrostatic shock (some research suggests that this may, to a lesser degree, occur with subsonic rounds as well). What that means is that a component of the sonic blast wave participates in the transfer of energy to tissue (we’re big bags of water), causing a radiating pressure wave that evidence shows can cause fractures in bone not impacted by the bullet, as well as damage to nearby internal organs and nerves.
Another great way of understanding the importance of surface area to the damage inflicted by rapid kinetic energy transfer would be Blendo. A battle robot built by the MythBusters guys that, as a “weapon” used a flywheel weighing roughly 100lbs (45kg) that was spun up to around 400RPM. The energy in that flywheel was transferred to the opposing robots in a very small surface area, causing such devastating effects that they were asked to withdraw from the competition.
This is very similar to how bullets work and one of a number of reasons that even a graze from 5.56mm bullet that hadn’t first lost a significant amount of its energy is very unlikely. The wound being able to heal in a week with no visible scarring (not to mention suppression of any medical records from being used in the investigation or revealed to the public) makes that possibility even more vanishingly small.
Wow, so when you cut yourself shaving, it bleeds like in the WWE, you go to the ER, and it takes months to heal?
It nicked his ear. He bled a bit. It healed. Besides, he’s old, how could you spot a scar among the hair, wrinkles, and moles?
We’re big bags of water, but ears are thin flaps of skin. Guess what? That pressure wave probably moved the ear out of the way.
Sheesh, what personal soap opera are you invested in so that you can’t see the absurdity of your position?
I understand what they’re claiming. That, however, is not what happened. You don’t need to get a second doctor to “corroborate” the nature of your injury if your story is true. The first one would have been fine. But they hid that.
And the injury clearly wasn’t bad enough to need actual extra consultation.
People seem to think it should have torn his ear clean off. Bullets can barely nick things.
When moving at supersonic velocities, barely nicking something is still enough to transfer enough energy into the ear to, at minimum, leave visible scarring, more likely, require reconstructive surgery.
No. They either ricochet off the drywall to make a cool peeeinggg sound effect, or splatter you like a bug in Starship Troopers. Even a .22 short.
But every gun is a M2 or Barrett.