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Old 09-01-2005, 09:13 AM
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Rocky Raab Rocky Raab is offline
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According to a source I found, "Stagnation pressure is the pressure a fluid exerts when it is motionless."

Even if we assume air as a fluid (partially correct), I cannot see any application to bullet ballistics because the "fluid" is always in motion around the bullet, in a relative sense.

There is one area where "stagnation" occurs in bullet flight, however. It is the area at the base of the bullet where the moving air rushes in around the bullet base, creating a tiny pocket of extreme turbulence. (Think of a boulder in a stream. The spot just at the downstream surface of the rock where the water really swirls is the stagnation zone.)

The stagnation zone creates axtra drag. Making that zone as small as possible improves the drag coefficient. That's why boattail bullets were developed: it minimizes the stagnation zone for any given bullet diameter.

But the stagnation zone has no effect on stability that I can discover.
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