Ok, I don't normally C&C other people's C&C, but these two parts I felt needed addressing.
Yes!! Finally a martial artist that uses guns! Even given Ranma's speed, I
doubt he could move faster than the speed of sound (Chestnut fist
notwithstanding). I hate it when people take Ranma's already maxed-out
abilities and and elevate them to stupid levels.
<snip>
This is generally what I meant about speed elevation. But it's still
somewhat believeable, since everyone's in close proximity. Bullets move
faster than sound, not people. Since Ranma had to beat the *people*, he
won. If he'd been dodging bullets, I'd be crying foul.
Note: Dodging bullets is moving out of the way of a bullet that would have
otherwise hit. Ranma is not the One and this is not the Matrix. ^_^
Most people who've never handled a gun or rifle before assume that all bullets move faster than
the speed of sound (I've actually had a remarkably uninformed individual tell me that the bang of a
gun is caused by the sonic boom.) This is not true. Those stats of a gun that refer to the
velocity are actually referring to muzzle velocity (the speed the shell is traveling when it leaves
the barrel) not impact speed (the speed at which it hits you.) Once it leaves the barrel, it begins
to lose spin and succumbs to the friction of the surrounding air. A bullet moving faster than sound
has a lot more friction to deal with and benefits a lot less from the spin imparted from rifling.
Thusly, it slows down QUICKLY. As a general rule only extremely high-powered handguns and sniper
rifles have impact velocities near or exceeding the speed of sound. The former are rare as hen's
teeth even here in the U.S. and the latter would be big, heavy and virtually useless in hitting
anybody who could see you by virtue of them just closing with you to screw up the range finder.
Aside from that, there are in fact martial artists alive today that can dodge bullet shots.
Granted they have to be very,very good but it can be done. It's not a matter of moving faster that
the bullet, either. Supposedly they do this by either closing the distance to screw up your
estimate of range (see above) or by estimating where the gunman is aiming and dodging
appropriately..
Assuming that Ranma is twice or three times better than the best martial-artist alive today,
then assuming he can dodge bullets isn't that big of a stretch at all.
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