Big Bang Befuddlement

If you shot a high-powered rifle off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean at a 45 degree angle, how far do you think the bullet would go?

Yeah, um, I don't know either. This is the question 13-year old TER asked me yesterday. Out of nowhere. Apropos to nothing. While I was sitting at the dining room table clipping coupons for the grocery store food that nourishes his body and mind just so that his surely-larger-than-mine brain can come up with questions like this. To ask me. Why me? My only response was to cock my head to the right, squint my eyes in confusion, laugh stupidly and say "I can't believe you just asked me that!".

The fact that he can even come up with such questions makes it clear that he will, in very short order, be more intelligent than I ever was. As most parents do when presented with an off-the-wall question, I told him to Google it. Or, that he should call his uncle, who was, at that same moment in time, hanging out at a gun shop. His response to this pass-the buck suggestion was to tell me that he didn't really care that much. I don't get it. How can a child possibly come up with such a query, ask it of an adult whom he knows wouldn't have faintest idea of how to even hazard a guess, but not truly be curious enough to hunt down the answer for himself? Then what is the point of asking the question in the first place?

I tried to Google the answer, but still don't know how much ground (or water) a bullet would cover in such a situation, assuming that there was no wind. I'm the one who doesn't give a good gosh damn, yet I'm the one trying to find out. What's wrong with this picture?

However, a random person on http://www.answers.yahoo.com/ who claims to have a degree in mechanical engineering tells us that:

Neglecting air resistance, it would travel 20.66 miles if fired at a 45 degree angle.
Vy = 571.144 m/sVy = Vo + (gravity)(time) 571.144 = 0 + 9.81(t)t = 58.22 seconds Vx = 571.144 m/sX = Xo + (Vo)(t)X = 0 +(571.144)(58.22)X = 33,252 metres X = 109,094.50 feet X = 20.66.

Good to know.