h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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This invention endevors to give allow people to grasp the
concept of velocity as something other than a number
and
to actually experience it visually.
If you shoot a bullet, you dont' see it. Differences in
velocity are just numbers attached to a non percevable
blur.
With this device,
you can actually watch a small BB
being
propelled faster than the eye could otherwise see in a
coiled pattern that would allow the eye to perceive it
unaided by slow motion cameras.
The projectile is blasted through a clear chamber
through
which twists a spring shaped coiled hollow path. Picture
a
BB being shot through a spring shaped tube.
It is projected by compressed gas so that it doesn't slow
down due to the friction of the ball rolling through the
coils.
So the projectile would be flying several hundred feet,
but
in the compressed area of a couple of square feet due to
the coiled path thus allowing the eye to more easily
perceive the flight.
The path may be a series of coils where the projectile is
shot in, goes from the outside of the coil to the inside
then to the next coil from the inside to the outside and
then the next from outside to inside and so on. Thus
several
hundred yards of trajectory path may be compressed
into a few cubic feet.
Wall of Death
https://www.youtube...watch?v=BJ2f675LgMQ
or well of death [popbottle, Apr 09 2017]
[link]
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If a roung projectile is going faster than the eye can see, does it matter whether it is going straight or bent? |
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Seems like you might be able to perceive a slight blur
moving along the length of the coil. |
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The spiral would have to be cast-in-place, maybe by some sort of lost wax process. |
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The wear rate on the wall of the spiral is going to be fairly high. |
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No, because the wear will always be on the outside of each bend. |
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As a more exciting way to visualize bullet speeds, how about having an SU-27 do a full-speed pass at an altitude of about 15ft? |
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Combine a Wall of Death motorcycle track (link), large circular v-track for the bb, paired compressed air jets for acceleration/velocity maintenance, and strobe lights to catch the little bugger flying by ? |
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At least the bb could be running on bearing quality steel and just air between your eyeball or camera lens. |
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Not likely table top size. |
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But strobe lights would make the bb appear stationary (or moving forward or backward at any apparent speed you chose). |
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//If a roung projectile is going faster than
the eye can see, does it matter whether it is going
straight or bent?.// |
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I believe so, albeit as a blur as Scad said. The
photons bounced off the projectile aren't scattered
along the linear trajectory, rather concentrated in
that small area, theoretically allowing the
cumulative bunch of reflected photons to hit your
eye in a useful manner that would allow
perception. |
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I'm pretty sure you'd seee a split second shadow or
blur going from one side of the enclosure to the
other. |
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As far as the structure, yea, it's going to have to be
pretty bulletproof seeing as it's containing a bullet.
The gas pressure would be necessary to keep it
moving as a projectile you just shot in would loose
all momentum very quickly due to the spiral
course. |
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Wanna guarantee you see it? Color the gas pushing
the bb. |
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Better yet, lose the frictiony projectile and just
use colored gas. You could even have a puff of
colored gas followed by clear gas so you'd perceive
it more clearly. |
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Just use a fairly large screen video device as your tabletop and
render a video clip of the demonstration. Very little friction, yay, but no
chance of death by escaped projectile, alas. |
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Yea, I thought of just using a laser or something
but
that's too easy. I originally liked the element
of danger that a projectile provided too. |
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Ok, a bead of mercury blown through the device
with
gas. Very reflective and you can make it longer so
it's
more visible. |
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Of course the easiest way to do it would just be to
have a computer program that filled in the pixils
on your screen at various rates. |
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If you simply have a very, very long transparent tube, and align your POV close to the tube so that the angular velocity is small, under strong illumination the projectile will be visible. |
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Consider a long, straight railway track; the apparent velocity of the train initially appears small, and it's only when it's close that its true speed is discernable. |
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...and then only briefly. |
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The trick is not to stand within the kinematic envelope of the approaching train, lest your comprehension of the speed be abruptly terminated. |
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You could always use one of those padded envelopes, though they don't work very well. Sturton once mailed me a Sumatran Bird-Eating Stick Insect in one, and it arrived in pieces. Actually I think it may have been in pieces when he mailed it. And actually it might have just been a stick. |
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// use one of those padded envelopes // |
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Tried that. Train stuck in the first tunnel it came to. |
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