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Jakob Ehrensvärd | all galleries >> Bits and Pieces >> Air gun experiments >> Exploding wine glasses > BF5T9024-c.jpg
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30-NOV-2006

BF5T9024-c.jpg

Pretty cool, I think. Just look at the point of impact how the glass is transformed into dust. The "dust cloud" up in the left corner is a different question... Maybe the bullet, but I guess the dark shadow in the rightmost cloud is the bullet... ? Or just some peak shock wave concentration in this very point... Or some debris from the first impact...

Canon EOS 1Ds
2s f/6.3 at 50.0mm iso200 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time30-Nov-2006 20:49:51
MakeCanon
ModelEOS-1Ds
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length50 mm
Exposure Time2.00 sec
Aperturef/6.3
ISO Equivalent200
Exposure Bias
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Programprogram (1)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Lou Giroud05-May-2008 14:57
If you know how a shockwave propagates in solid and soft materials and at what speed, you can easely explain the dust cloud on the upper left corner. Look at what place the bullet hit the glass, the shock wave that propagates in the wall of the glass is faster then the time it needs to crack. The shockwave propagates at same speed to all sides of the impact and you see here how the glass gets broken from impact point to the bottom and the top. For sure the distance is shorter and the glass breaks right away. The impact waves going to left and right will follow the wall of the galss and meet from both sides at a certain place of the back of the glass and cause the glass to break in small particles. Here the shock wave went up in an angle of about 30 degrees in all directions and colided just on the upper rear edge of the glass causing it to break in millions of smallest particles. In modern weapons the killing effect is often not due to the piercing or stopping action of a bullet. Supersonic bullets cause a shockwave at impact that destroy just anything inside a body, just like seen on the back of this glass. The bigger and slower a bullet, the more stopping power it has causing an enemy or agressor to fall on his butt at impact and stay wounded on the spot or killed, all depends what part of the body gets hurt. To get supersonic speed, you need to reduce the size of a bullet causing it to create a deasly shockwave at impact. The disadvantage of such ammunition is its instability during flight. Just any dust can deviate it from its trajectory making it to miss its target. Modern military weapons are made all in that way today. This picture shows nicely what dammage a shockwave can cause to an object. Here it's just a small airgun bullet. Imagine the same with a 222 or 223 shotgun bullet fired from an M16 riffle. Good gallery for people to learn about balistics.
Barry S Moore11-Jun-2007 14:53
Captured brilliantly. Voted
Jim Ross30-Nov-2006 21:14
Good one...