Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

Ballistic Art @ 1 Million Frames per Second

Many of us have seen high-speed film footage of bul­lets tear­ing apart apples, water jugs, and other inno­cent objects.  That’s still cool to watch, but it can get a lit­tle bor­ing after a few moments.  It takes some­one with an artis­tic eye to come up with some­thing new.

I think I’ve found that some­thing new.

Here’s some high­speed footage, appar­ently taken at 1 mil­lion frames per sec­ond, of metal bul­lets cre­at­ing won­der­ful visual pat­terns when they smack into metal plat­ing, glass, gelatin, and paper.  It isn’t just about the bul­lets blow­ing things apart with shock­waves.  It’s about the visual pat­terns cre­ated when they punch through or, my per­sonal favorite, when they dis­in­te­grate against objects they can’t penetrate.

Plus, there’s a funky sound­track to this one! Enjoy!