wkrepelin said:
Sorry to do this but . . . maturin has literally no idea what they're talking about.
*snip*
Ba-zing-gah!
Are you sure you have a BS? I don't think anyone trying to tout their degree with a straight face would write like you.
The momentum of the so-called "manstopper" .45 ACP bullet is approximately that of a 1 pound (0.45 kg) mass dropped from a height of 11.4 feet (3.5 m). Such a force is simply incapable of arresting a running target's forward momentum. In addition, bullets are designed to penetrate instead of strike a blunt force blow, because, in penetrating, more severe tissue damage is done. A bullet with sufficient energy to knock down an assailant, such as a high-speed rifle bullet, would be more likely to instead pass straight through, while not transferring the full energy (in fact only a very small percentage of the full energy) of the bullet to the victim.
Source here: http://www.firearmstactical.com/pdf/fbi-hwfe.pdf
The formula for the force of a collision is mass times velocity divided by time. This means if the mass is low it can be compensated for by either increasing speed or decreasing time.
And bullets move really effing fast though the body, so the TIME negates the otherwise great momentum of fast-moving projectile.
Additionally, human bodies are not the small dense object A on a pop quiz. They are squishy things made of flexible materials. A bullet is capable of puncturing and displacing highly ductile tissue without acting on the overall body with anything resembling its total force. If the bullet was actually the size of a cow and collided rather penetrated, you're damn right it would probably knock you over.
I don't care if you're Stephen Hawking. No matter what theory says, it's a widely-known, easily-verified objective fact that bullets do no such thing.
You and the bullet and since you now have nonzero momentum you are moving and since you body forms an inverted pen . . . (go away, this is important, someone on the internet is wrong!) ahem . . . right, inverted pendulum then you just fall over.
Wait, now I have to ask if you've been being sarcastic the whole time. I'm not an inverted pendulum. I have *legs.* When a force acts against me above my center of gravity, my whole body reacts to it and readjusts. I was talking about the real world, where people resist falling over. Specifically, I was writing about people already moving.
FYI: Energy transfer is a theoretical term used in describing ballistics trauma, not high school physics problems.
Edit:
Actually, yes, I am quite sure you were being sarcastic or else have no schooling physics.
For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. I believe some famous guy said that at some point.
The force of a bullet hitting a target must always be less than the recoil force of the weapon. Does weapon recoil knock people over? It can, but it is also easily resisted.
Isaac Newton proved this in the 17th century, and he used your precious pendulum to do it.
More data: being struck by a 9mm round is like being hit with a one pound weight dropped from only six feet. Going at 19.6 feet per second. 13.3 miles per hour. Or ten pounds dropped from a little over a foot.
Read about it on page 9 of the link.
