h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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Wait! Here I was all set to try modifying my Tippmman to see if I could rig up something that would work and it's already a thing... with laser sights and everything. [link] |
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It's not obvious whether this fires vortices of water or air. Clearly there are some air bubbles present but they may just be the "exhaust" from the trigger mechanism, which I assume is powered by the diver's air supply. A water vortex will carry more momentum and make a better weapon. The fact that the vortices in the video don't show any signs of positive buoyancy suggests that they are predominantly water. |
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I think a night-time version of this would be even better. If there was a light source in the vicinity of the nozzle would the light get "trapped" in the air bubbles by total internal reflection and get transported with the vortex? That would be very cool. I've got a horrible feeling optics is working against this idea though. |
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It definitely fires air vortices.
[link] 3 gives the demo on operation. They are positively buoyant but remain cohesive until the energy dissipates. Scroll to the end of the video to see them skipping upside-down off of the under-surface of the water. |
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A high intensity black light would cause air pockets within its cone to glow for a certain distance.
That would be cool. |
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please tell me that you're not already the inventor of this little gizmo and you just sucked me into playing straight-man in an infomercial... |
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Predictably the video provoked the stern to respond with warnings. People dive with knives. I think most do no harm with these; and that's simply because they choose not to. Same thing with the vortex cannon. |
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This looks like lots of fun, but possibly more of the hire-it than buy-it kind. |
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To make combat more cloak and dagger in tropical waters, perhaps they could devise a kind of curtain array/maze. Set up a swimmable distance offshore, and even non-scuba divers could swim or paddle out to play. Could get a bit hectic when there was a big swell running. |
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Most mazes would need to be strictly 2-D? ... Maybe there are even safe ways to build 3-D mazes for the non-crazy. |
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As for the dangers of ambush advertising here, I suppose the five of us had better just learn to like it if it happens. |
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// please tell me that you're not already the inventor of this little gizmo and you just sucked me into playing straight-man in an infomercial... // |
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Nah... If I'd invented this it would have looked far less professional. |
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So would this not be more powerful with water vortices? Except you wouldn't get the cool bouncing-it-off-the-surface thing. |
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On second thought, perhaps air is better after all. For a fixed kinetic energy in the vortex the momentum (= impact force) will be higher for a low density medium. If you used a water vortex I guess it would just convect really slowly. |
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You'd have to color water vortices in order to see them. [link] 4
Whew... I'm getting all linked out here. |
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...and there goes my chances of guilting you into providing all five of us with free samples. |
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// You'd have to color water vortices in order to see them // |
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Or you could discharge the spent compressed air from the driver mechanism into the periphery of the ring and use this as a visual marker. |
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Yes. Yes that's good, and it might even generate its own phosphorescence in salt water! |
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