The trigonometry of terror: Why the Las Vegas shooting was so deadly

I think these visuals are very helpful




Oct. 4, 2017, 3:00 a.m.
The trigonometry of terror: Why the Las Vegas shooting was so deadly

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-las-vegas-shooting-live-updates-at-his-local-starbucks-vegas-shooter-1507060195-htmlstory.html











Geoffrey Mohan

Arthur B. Alphin is well acquainted with the trigonometry of terror.

The retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel and West Point graduate, who has a mechanical engineering degree and specialized in ballistics, has testified in many multiple shooting cases.

What he sees so far about the Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock is a patient, well-trained gunner who did not pick and choose his targets, but held to a steady kill zone centered in the middle of a thousands of concertgoers.

Once the trigger was pulled, simple laws of physics and trigonometry sealed the fate of more than 500 people who would fall wounded in the ensuing fracas — 59 of them fatally.

“He had a huge area of three, four or five football fields with people standing shoulder to shoulder,” said Alphin. “He was not aiming at any individual person. He was just throwing bullets in a huge ‘beaten zone.’”



Beaten zone is an infantry term dating to World War I. Shaped like the area a searchlight casts across a flat surface, it represents the area where bullets can strike, and moves substantially with tiny changes in the tilt of the gun.........................................................