MythBusters can be fun...
Sep. 22nd, 2004 02:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfwings...but god damnit they miss the obvious stuff sometimes.
Watched their 'review' of the 'ice bullet' idea. And I noticed something blatantly wrong with their ENTIRE setup.
Density.
Of course the ice bullet vaporized into steam. It's density is only 917kg/meter cubed, even straight lead is well over 11000kg/meter cubed. Roughly, it's 1/12th the density, meaning it needs roughly 1/12th the gunpowder to reach the same muzzle velocity. It's akin to shooting a .357 round loaded with over 120 grains of a powder that would normally only take 10 grains.
Even a lead or steel bullet would 'vaporize' and splinter apart under that sort of load.
So, I started doing the math...
Divide the weight of the bullet by 12, and keep the muzzle velocity the same, assume a 30.06 bullet size as a 'standard' rifle to work from...
And the bullet would end up having roughly the impact force of a .357 Magnum. Using what would seem to be barely any powder what-so-ever.
Now, as a preventative step, to further reduce the heat imparted on the 'ice round' takes another shift in mechanics, which any 'assassins load' would do anyways to accomidate a silencer. Shifting to a sub-sonic load, to remove the air friction and sound barrier further obliterating the bullet, not to mention the majority of the 'bang' from the round. This could easilly cut the powder load in half again, so now we're down to 1/24th the 'normal' powder load. Suddenly, there's a lot of room in that casing. And I mean a fuck-load of room, especially by bullet-casing standards.
We could just use up all that extra space with wadding... but then I thought of an interesting, and simple solution to any other heat problems. Take essentially a gelcap (or just a super-thin plastic capsule) of liquid nitrogen, load the gunpowder, then a normal wad, then that gelcap, then a tissue-paper wad, THEN the ice bullet. Now, when you fire things... you have a reasonable muzzle velocity target, with almost zero air friction heating up the leading edge of the bullet, and the initial 'impact' will sent a chilling jolt of liquid nitrogen down the barrel just behind the ice round to be vaporized in it's place, with the added benefit of the rapid expansion of the liquid nitrogen acting like an 'air cannon' to boost the ice projectile's speed as it travels the barrel.
And that is why I think I have far, far too much time on my hands, when I find myself 'mythbusting' mystbusters using simple math, instead of 'feel good' ideas like teflon-coating the ice bullet, trying to grow a monocrystalline ice bullet, or similair nonsense. =^.^=
Watched their 'review' of the 'ice bullet' idea. And I noticed something blatantly wrong with their ENTIRE setup.
Density.
Of course the ice bullet vaporized into steam. It's density is only 917kg/meter cubed, even straight lead is well over 11000kg/meter cubed. Roughly, it's 1/12th the density, meaning it needs roughly 1/12th the gunpowder to reach the same muzzle velocity. It's akin to shooting a .357 round loaded with over 120 grains of a powder that would normally only take 10 grains.
Even a lead or steel bullet would 'vaporize' and splinter apart under that sort of load.
So, I started doing the math...
Divide the weight of the bullet by 12, and keep the muzzle velocity the same, assume a 30.06 bullet size as a 'standard' rifle to work from...
And the bullet would end up having roughly the impact force of a .357 Magnum. Using what would seem to be barely any powder what-so-ever.
Now, as a preventative step, to further reduce the heat imparted on the 'ice round' takes another shift in mechanics, which any 'assassins load' would do anyways to accomidate a silencer. Shifting to a sub-sonic load, to remove the air friction and sound barrier further obliterating the bullet, not to mention the majority of the 'bang' from the round. This could easilly cut the powder load in half again, so now we're down to 1/24th the 'normal' powder load. Suddenly, there's a lot of room in that casing. And I mean a fuck-load of room, especially by bullet-casing standards.
We could just use up all that extra space with wadding... but then I thought of an interesting, and simple solution to any other heat problems. Take essentially a gelcap (or just a super-thin plastic capsule) of liquid nitrogen, load the gunpowder, then a normal wad, then that gelcap, then a tissue-paper wad, THEN the ice bullet. Now, when you fire things... you have a reasonable muzzle velocity target, with almost zero air friction heating up the leading edge of the bullet, and the initial 'impact' will sent a chilling jolt of liquid nitrogen down the barrel just behind the ice round to be vaporized in it's place, with the added benefit of the rapid expansion of the liquid nitrogen acting like an 'air cannon' to boost the ice projectile's speed as it travels the barrel.
And that is why I think I have far, far too much time on my hands, when I find myself 'mythbusting' mystbusters using simple math, instead of 'feel good' ideas like teflon-coating the ice bullet, trying to grow a monocrystalline ice bullet, or similair nonsense. =^.^=
Mythbusting.
Date: 2004-09-22 03:29 am (UTC)Re: Mythbusting.
Date: 2004-09-22 11:14 am (UTC)Hell, from what I've seen so far, doing a test of such a bullet myself wouldn't be hard at all, actually. Hand-loading rigs are easy to find, I know several that own them, all I'd need is a way to make the 'gelcap' of liquid nitrogen, and someone that could hand-load a subsonic rifle round powdered for an ice-density projectile weight instead of a lead-density projectile weight. The amount of powder needed is actually the biggest obstacle I'm trying to nail down how much would be needed, and may well be the 'experimental' aspect of the entire idea.
Re: Mythbusting.
Date: 2004-09-22 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 04:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 05:50 am (UTC)It's one of the 'classic' conspiracy-theory ideas...
Date: 2004-09-22 11:09 am (UTC)It's easy to think of other materials to make the bullet out of that would do something similair, but making it out of ice has a further benefit... it's untracable, chemically, because water is already so prevelant in the body.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-22 04:33 pm (UTC)Specific boundaries on the projectile...
Date: 2004-09-23 02:25 pm (UTC)Ergo, no 'wierd' propulsion systems like compressed air or similair. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-23 02:31 pm (UTC)