this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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Mythbusters (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] FuglyDuck 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It’s the surface tension that causes the shockwave, soapy water wouldn’t have the same effect.

And yes, dynamite explosives are rather more dangerous under water. Which is how torpedos work to break ships without much regard for armor.

[–] Jarix 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Right so its the water that causes it to break because of the surface tension of the water.

Sounds like you are arguing against my phrasing while agreeing with what i understand. Im confused why we seem to be in a disagreement.

Maybe you can school my dumb ass though, can you eli5 what would need to happen for you to say it was the water that does the work on stopping bullets?

[–] FuglyDuck 1 points 5 months ago

It’s the interaction between the air and water that does it.

If, hypothetically, you were to move something through the water at that speed, it wouldn’t shatter or just be stopped. There is significantly more drag, so it would come to rest sooner than in air but it wouldn’t just stop.

For example, many small boats have very high rpm propellers that survive just fine- until they start cavitating.

The reason a .50 cal or .308 shatter is the shock of hitting the surface tension, and it’s the shattering that allows the fragments to be slowed down so quickly.

It’s also the reason they were surprised- they forgot to include surface tension in their initial model.