Nerf darts are lightweight and fairly big. This makes them safe, and rather impossible to be delivered over distances. I propose an automatic airzooka, that generates vortices following a few metres behind each other. The nerf dart is fired when the vortices are almost upon the target, so the dart flies through all the vortices regaining lost momentum as it passes through their midst.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 Or sabotted nerf darts that shed their sabot just before impact?-- coprocephalous, Apr 21 2009 How would a sabot help? Either the dart would be even more unaerodynamic in the beginning, or it would shed it's fluffyness just before hitting the target. The target might react badly to this.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 //more unaerodynamic//
I think you mean "more disunaerodynamical" or alternatively "less aerodynamic".-- theleopard, Apr 21 2009 more unaerodynamic = less aerodynamic, no? but i concur, less aerodynamic is much better, might even be less ungood.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 (sp. "a few metres" - unless you mean parking meters)A 'sabot' is, according to Wikipedia, "a device used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile, such as a bullet, that is smaller than the bore diameter." - I didn't know that before. I suppose they would give more efficient performance from an air-powered Nerf gun, or even allow the relatively large-calibre AirZooka to be used for firing the Nerf projectile itself.-- hippo, Apr 21 2009 I suggest firing a glider (designed to have an extended flight distance) that can drop nerf weaponary on the target via remote activation.-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009 thanks for the sp., [hippo], i actually envisioned this to function without meters in the vicinity.
The sabot is not helpful, though. There is no problem firing a nerf dart with higher initial velocity ( just increase the pressure) and increase reach, but safety is compromised that way, because an accidental point-blank hit would then be dangerous. And likewise, a steel pin inside a nerf-sabot would be flying farther than a nerf dart the same size as the sabot, because it would be accelerated to about the same muzzle velocity as a normal nerf dart, and would then fly with the aerodynamics of a pin, i.e very good. Again, this would compromise safety on the receiving end.
the idea is about delivering a nerf dart, at nerf-normal speeds to a target outside nerf-normal reach, without making it more dangerous than nerf-normal at any point of it's journey; it is not about just getting foam somewhere far away, this could be accomplished by shooting a BB-pellet that foams on contact with blood.-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 //on contact with blood// gasp!-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009 why the fishbones?-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009 I like this very much. I like it because it would be an excellent science fair project or contest for a class. Would this actually work? Would it work underwater? Can one improve the range of a projectile by modifying the medium? Also the video would look very cool in a smoky or vapory room where one could see the vortices more easily.
The contest should be between plain dart, dart with vortices, and dart with plain fan.-- bungston, Apr 21 2009 --(--)-(--)-(--)+( )-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 21 2009 Doesn't this violate the Law of Consnerfation of Energy?-- normzone, Apr 22 2009 [normzone]: I hope it does not... The vortices are a well known phenomenon, and do get weaker with time. They look like donuts, with the outside rotating against the direction of movement (lending forward thrust to the vortex) and the small inside rotates in direction of movement. So every time the dart would pass through the middle, at the very least the drag would temporarily be smaller than usual, but i hope it would even accelerate the dart (would depend on the velocity of the dart at that moment, i have not run any numbers on this)
[2 fries shy of a happy meal]: is that a visual representation of the idea, or a formula depicting your fishbone/croissant thoughts on the idea?-- loonquawl, Apr 22 2009 random, halfbakery