The pendulum setup to check bullet/rock energy was entertaining but quite unnecessary. There's a simple formula for calculating bullet energy. All they had to do was weigh the rock, convert its weight to "grains" and use this formula to determine the energy produced: http://www.grizzly.site88.net/shooting.html#formulas
shareThat's not really science though. That's skipping the science and using someone else's results.
shareIt's not using someone else's results. The formula is standard for calculating bullet energy. You enter in your own specifications. If they put in the weight and velocity of the rock, it would have given them the rock's energy. Then, all they would have had to do is compare it to the energy of the .357 Magnum round.
shareSure it is. Some other people figured out and proved that formula using experiments. If you don't do the experiment, it's not really doing science.
shareMaking the URL into a link can encourage people to click it.
http://www.grizzly.site88.net/shooting.html#formulas
Thanks. I added a link.
share'twas explained on the aftershow:
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/accidental-ammo-aftershow/
You mean I didn't need to do Physics Lab in College. I could just use math. Bummer! :)
But I took physics in college for my didn't get engineering degree. But until I saw Bill Nye the Science guy drive a car around in a circle and push a dummy out the door I didn't fully understand angular momentum and centripetal force.
It helped me explain it so much better to my did get an engineering degree son.
that's great, except this is a television show, how exciting/interesting would it have been to watch Adam plug numbers into a calculator?
how else would they have made this story stretch long enough without the pendulum bit? especially with Jamie's toy breaking, that was probably supposed to fill about the same amount of time
What i want to know...
where they get all the questions they use for the Q and A show, the discovery forums links don't work...
A lead bullet will impact more energy on a target than a full metal jacket bullet.
How hard the stone is, and how it fractures will affect its force.
There are so many variables to take into account, it was probably easier to set up the pendellum rig.
Plus, if we wanted to read, we wouldn't of been watching TV lol.
Yea, but what's more visually entertaining, seeing two nerds do math on a paper or watching a pendulum swing on high-speed cameras?
Mythbusters is a TV show, which is a visual medium, which means they have to show interesting things happening. Doing math isn't as fun to watch.