On Tue, 08 May 2007 17:59:13 +0000, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote: >> Did you know that the first military smokeless powder >> round was for the French Lebel? - It threw a bronze >> ball, and could punch through a single brick wall. >> > Well, extreme high speed wouldn't help for that -- just get a > surface splatter. Heavy and slower... (or some sort of solid core -- > depleted uranium with a teflon coating)
I remember a MythBusters episode that had the guys testing the old Hollywood staple of somebody trying to escape gunfire by swimming underwater. To their surprise, they found that modern high-velocity rounds basically hit the water and stopped dead, hardly penetrating at all, while an old musket shot they found actually penetrated the water furthest. Hmmm... musket? I may be confabulating that last bit, the rifle may not have been that old. World War One vintage perhaps? But it fired a heavy slow round, and everybody predicted it would penetrate the water the least, but it was the opposite. Anyway, the myth was confirmed. I guess that's why people don't go fishing with shotguns. -- Steven. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
