Comment on You have to pick one
db2@lemmy.world 2 days ago
If they’re being launched by the same spring mechanism you’re better off with the bowling ball than a little glass bullet.
Comment on You have to pick one
db2@lemmy.world 2 days ago
If they’re being launched by the same spring mechanism you’re better off with the bowling ball than a little glass bullet.
redlemace@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Depends, how tight is the spring? At high velocity i’d guess a marble will penetrate the body, where at low velocity a marbel would be easier to stop
deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I think they’ll both be exactly the same difficulty to stop due to conservation of energy. If the spring used is the same for both the bowling ball and the marble, the bowling ball is going to be going much, much slower than the marble.
mmddmm@lemm.ee 2 days ago
If we pretend people are homogeneous, both will penetrate through the same amount of “meat”. What means the bowling ball will carve something like a 0.1mm deep 30cm wide hole, while the marble will carve something like a 10cm deep 1cm wide hole.
JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 2 days ago
This feels wrong to my brain. Something that is much heavier must take more energy to move, and therefore to stop. The same velocity doesn’t necessarily imply the same amount of kinetic energy right? Now I gotta go look this up or wait for someone to tell me why I’m stupid
deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
The spring imparts the same amount of energy to the marble and bowling ball. The two objects are not at the same velocity, the marble would be moving significantly faster.
RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
But you have to consider air resistance, that should reduce the energy of the bowling ball when hitting you, making it easier to stop
earphone843@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Friction would be way more if a determining factor than air resistance, assuming they’re traveling along the ground.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Air resistance will affect the marble more since it’s traveling faster. I also feel like either mass (or more likely, density) of the object matters, which would advantage the bowling ball in this aspect too.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
And a low velocity marble would translate to a bowling ball bumping into your toe, so I’m not sure what you think the advantage would be there
JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
I think that spring still leaves ambiguity. A very thick, powerful spring like that in an ejection seat could probably get the bowling ball airborne, but wouldn’t actually impart anywhere near the same amount of energy on the marble.
A small elastic band like that used in a slingshot on the other hand would have difficulty getting the bowling ball to fly at all but could turn the marble into a bullet.