Critical Height Values: Podium/Trump & Bleachers Bullet Contact
This post is mainly directed to Roger Knight, but will be of interest to others also.
I myself have looked very carefully at the issue of back tracing the trajectory of the bullet that struck Donald Trump and then the bleachers. And I am shortly going to be releasing a video of my findings with diagrams and calculations.
I have been viewing posts on the Peak Prosperity forum for a few weeks now just to see what others were saying, before eventually contributing myself. I did not want to do it prematurely, until I had satisfied myself of certain particulars. In this regard, I want to share some of my own views on some of the critical heights of interest.
Podium + Trump (ear height)
Firstly, I note that Roger Knight has the following:
Height of Podium: 48 inches, or 4 ft
Height of Donald Trump: 74 inches
Height of Ear: -5 inches
Trump’s posture / knee slightly bent: -2 inches
Total = 67 inches, or 5.583333 ft.
Podium + Trump = 9.583333. ft.
It seems that I differ from Roger by just 1 inch. For me the total height of the podium and Donald Trump (ear Level) = 9.5 feet.
However, I radically disagree with Roger on the composition of the two components.
There would appear to be six equal riser components to the steps leading up to the podium. It looks like Roger chooses 8 inches per riser. For me this is completely in error. Firstly, risers which have a back panel (wood or stone) have a maximum height per specifications in the US of 7.75 inches. Now within a lot of homes in the United States, the average riser is about 7.5 inches. However, the steps of this type – as used for the podium - to me are undoubtedly exactly 7 inches per riser. I would ask that people examine carefully a selection of steps of exactly this type. You can see them on Amazon. They are the kinds of steps that people usually buy to get into hot tubs, or for similar applications. They’re almost all 7 inches high per riser. The reason that they cannot be over 7 inches – this being the maximum - is due to health and safety. Because they are open risers, they represent a child hazard if over 7 inches i.e. children might fall through them.
For this reason, I contend that the height of the podium is exactly 6 x 7 inches, which is 42 inches or 3.5 feet. This is 6 inches less than the value proposed by Roger.
With respect to Trump, I see that there is a White House official medical examination paper stating that his height is 6’3". I myself subtract 3 inches from this for the bullet hitting Trump’s ear. I disagree with Roger that it is 5 inches down from Donald Trump’s head.
In addition to this, whereas I might accept that there is a further minus 2 inches due to Trump’s posture, when I look at his shoes, I add in an extra 2 inches due to the height of his heels. For me, these two things cancel out.
In sum, I contend that the height of the podium + Trump (ear height) = 9.5 feet exactly.
In this I am 1 inch less than Roger, it is just that we completely disagree with one another upon the values of the two component parts.
The Bleachers - Bullet Contact
This was really a tricky one that had me stumped initially. The Speedy Bleachers used are easily identifiable from a basic internet search, and I noticed that Roger has put links to the bleachers in question in one of his previous posts, and even the side-on specification diagram.
Now whether we are talking about bleachers 30 feet in length or 45, it matters not. The width and height for both of them with 10 rows is identical: 19’4" in width, and 12’2" in height.
But certainly this is very deceptive at face value, and one needs to look very carefully at the specification diagram.
You will see that the noted width is 231 inches exactly. This is equal to 19’3" however. So where is the missing inch that would make it 19’4”? This truly is the critical question. As is obvious from the diagram itself, there is no total height value given for the bleachers from the ground right up to the tip of the back railing. One could be forgiven for thinking that it is 12’2", but it is not. You see there is a missing component to the diagram. At the back of the bleachers are series of additional metal posts that come up over the railing itself. These can be seen if one looks at these types of bleachers fully extended, and even from photographs of the rally itself.
The height from the ground right up to the tip of these polls is exactly 12’2", and because they are an inch thick, were they depicted in the diagram, the width would be 232 inches exactly, which would be 19’4". Because they are not shown however, 231 inches is given instead.
The point that I wish to make though, is that the total height from the ground right up to the tip of the bleachers is exactly 11 feet high. This can be extrapolated from the proportions of the diagram itself from the one height value that is depicted. That being the 28 inches value that you see, bottom right.
Roger gives a bleachers height of 11.125 feet in his latest determination. For me then, we disagree on this point. I believe it is 11 feet dead on.
I also note that Roger believes that the bleachers were hit by the first bullet 2 inches from their height: 11.125 - 0.166666 = 10.9583333 ft.
I disagree on this point. For me, the bleachers were struck by the first bullet 4 inches from the tip of the back railing: 11 – 0.33333 ft. = 10.666666 ft.
The way I determined this was from one of the videos. It was the most high-definition one I could find of the bullet strike. I’m sure we’ve all seen it. I looked at the very first frame which showed the bullet dust cloud upon disintegration. Studying it very carefully, I worked out the height of the cloud, and also the lowest part. And from this, the midpoint, which I surmise is the best indicator for where the bullet struck. For me, this is 4 inches from the top of the bleachers.
I hope this information is of interest.