the.com/ballistics

means the science of how projectiles move through the air — and, in forensics, the study of bullets, firearms, and their telltale marks to trace a shot back to its gun.

from From Greek 'ballein,' to throw — the same restless root that hurls a 'ballista' (the ancient catapult that flung stones and bolts at walls) and even, by a winding path, the 'ballistic' missile. That throwing-verb is generous with its children: 'symbol,' 'problem,' and 'parable' are all distant cousins, things 'thrown together' or 'thrown forward.' Ballistics simply kept the literal arc — what goes up, and exactly where it comes down.