"
But I doubt this will happen because Trump should have lost his hearing in his right ear and would not have been almost immediately released by the doctors if he was struck in the ear by a bullet, even a grazing bullet. But I await their report.
The supersonic shock wave does not deliver much energy. If the 10 gram bullet traveling at 1000 m/s loses on the order of 1 m/s per m of travel the energy imparted per m is:
1/2 m(v
2-(v-1)
2)=1/2 m(2v-1)=m(v-.5)=10 joules. And that is distributed in a cone over an entire metre. His ear opening is maybe 1cm and on one side of the cone. So the energy reaching the ear is 1/200th of that or .05J. And the bullet would have to pass over the ear canal to impart some of that energy to the ear drum. In this case, the bullet passed an inch or so above the ear canal because it struck the upper part of the outer ear.
What evidence is there that a bullet shock wave event applied directly over the ear canal will cause hearing loss ie. break an ear drum?