Chuck Dye
Member
A novel currently serialized in ANALOG magazine posits a character wounded by a bullet fired from a range of over a thousand miles in the micro gravity environment of a space going balloon several thousand miles in diameter. The gun is described as breech loading, bullet plus loose powder (yah, improbable.) Assuming any bullet mass, B.C., and muzzle velocity from our own modern ammunition inventory, and the earth standard atmospheric conditions (roughly 59°F, 14.504psi, 78% humidity, 0.075lb/ft³ density) used by ballistics programs but eliminating gravity, at what range would the bullet become just one more piece of debris drifting like plankton? Propose your own atmospheric conditions if you wish.