Sean Kelly wrote:
I've seen a couple shows on bullet penetration through material, and the
results were pretty interesting. MythBusters tested the "dive under
water to avoid bullets" myth and discovered that the bullets from
modern, high-velocity weapons fragmented before penetrating more than a
few feet into the water (partially because bullets are designed to
fragment in the body, thus doing more damage), confirming that as a
viable escape tactic. Older weapons like Muskets had much better
penetration, both from the slower velocity and the round, solid
ammunition, but still no more than perhaps seven feet.
Yah, they said 1m should be ok and 2m should be perfect. What they
failed to mention was how the heck you'll ever get back up with 25kg
worth of equipment on you :o).
Another show was more "scientific" and tested bullet penetration through
wood, stone, walls, and jugs of water. Military weapons went through
the wood and such like it wasn't even there, and even did quite well
against stone.
The wall test was interesting because they spaced their simulated walls
a few feet apart, and the bullets would only penetrate two or three
walls before disappearing. What would happen is that they'd begin to
tumble upon hitting the first wall, and the direction change would be so
severe from hitting successive walls at different angles that they'd
leave the test area completely. The warning there was that if you fire
a weapon in a house the bullet could quite easily go through a wall or
two downstairs, change direction and come up through the floor upstairs,
potentially hitting an unexpected target.
And as with MythBusters, nothing penetrated more than a few jugs of
water before coming to a halt. It was far and away the best barrier
they could find for high-velocity weapons.
No surprise. The physics of bullets is still poorly understood. I
haven't seen the shows you mention, but another Mythbusters busted the
conspiracy theory about JFK being shot from the opposite direction than
the official version. People saw the head bobbing "the wrong way". The
Mythbusters folks shot a pumpkin mounted like a head and, surprise - it
bobbed in the direction the bullet came from!
Andrei
