What is the fastest projectile in the world?
USING an experimental gun about 60 feet long, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have blasted a small projectile to a speed of 10 miles a second, which is thought to be the highest velocity ever reached on earth by any object larger than a speck of dust.
According to the Guinness World Records, the machine gun in service with the highest rate of fire is the M134 Minigun. Designed in 1960s, this weapon spat fury from helicopters and armored vehicles. This 7.62mm calibre gun fired at a super fast pace of 6,000 rounds per minute i.e. 100 rounds per second.
220 Swift remains the fastest commercial cartridge in the world, with a published velocity of 1,422 m/s (4,665 ft/s) using a 1.9 grams (29 gr) bullet and 2.7 grams (42 gr) of 3031 powder.
Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately 120 m/s (390 ft/s) to 370 m/s (1,200 ft/s) in black powder muskets, to more than 1,200 m/s (3,900 ft/s) in modern rifles with high-velocity cartridges such as the . 220 Swift and .
Badminton – 493 km/h
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Stardust – 28,856 mph
The capsule achieved the fastest speed of any man-made object returning to Earth's atmosphere — Mach 36.
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It contains 3,000 rounds, enough ammunition to fire the minigun for a full minute. The system is entirely self-contained. So it can be mounted on any aircraft that can handle the weight, rotational torque, and recoil force (190 lbf (850 N)) of the gun.
Railguns use magnetic fields created by high electrical currents to accelerate a projectile to Mach 6, or 5,400 miles an hour.
Fires can't burn in the oxygen-free vacuum of space, but guns can shoot. Modern ammunition contains its own oxidizer, a chemical that will trigger the explosion of gunpowder, and thus the firing of a bullet, wherever you are in the universe. No atmospheric oxygen required.
Is it possible to dodge a bullet?
Bullet dodging, Scientific American reports, is one such make-believe ability invented by Hollywood. Regardless of your speed and finesse, no human can dodge a bullet at close range. The bullet is simply traveling too fast. Even the slowest handguns shoot a bullet at 760 miles per hour, SciAm explains.
| Bullet mass/type | Velocity | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 0.2 g (3 gr) FMJ | 200 m/s (660 ft/s) | 4 J (3.0 ft⋅lbf) |
It can travel around 1.5 miles at a 12,000 foot altitude," Paskiewicz said. Many factors go into where a bullet travels like wind, obstacles, weight of bullet and trajectory. Experts said if it were on a flat surface with no obstacles, a . 22 caliber from a handgun could almost make it from The Vibe to Zoo Knoxville.
Most pistol bullets are made of a lead-antimony alloy encased in a soft brass or copper-plated soft steel jacket. In rifle and machine-gun bullets, a soft core of lead is encased in a harder jacket of steel or cupronickel. Armour-piercing bullets have a hardened-steel inner core.
When bullets fly through the air, they do so at amazing speeds. The fastest bullets travel more than 2,600 feet per second. That's equivalent to over 1,800 miles per hour. To put that in perspective, it's amazing to realize that bullets travel over twice the speed of sound!
Railguns use magnetic fields created by high electrical currents to accelerate a projectile to Mach 6, or 5,400 miles an hour.
| Bullet mass/type | Velocity | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 655 gr (42 g) ADI | 3,029 ft/s (923 m/s) | 13,350 ft⋅lbf (18,100 J) |
| 700 gr (45 g) Barnes | 2,978 ft/s (908 m/s) | 13,971 ft⋅lbf (18,942 J) |
| 750 gr (49 g) Hornady | 2,820 ft/s (860 m/s) | 13,241 ft⋅lbf (17,952 J) |
| 800 gr (52 g) Barnes | 2,895 ft/s (882 m/s) | 14,895 ft⋅lbf (20,195 J) |
| Bullet mass/type | Velocity | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 0.2 g (3 gr) FMJ | 200 m/s (660 ft/s) | 4 J (3.0 ft⋅lbf) |