In order to enhance slingshots further, more insights into the related physics are needed.
This video uses a great piece of equipment for learning more about rubber bands: A thermal camera! This professional product made by Jenoptics has a resolution of 360x240, means, more than 86,000 laser thermoscopes are building an image. Much like the "heat visor" the predators use in the movies!
This way, heat structures can be made visible. It is mostly used to check how well a house is insulated, but it is also fantastic for scientific experiments.
Here, the thermal aspect of slingshot rubber is researched with the camera. It turns out that rubber bands store the muscle energy the shooter invests by drawing out into thermal energy - the bands warm up very quickly. When the shot falls, the bands retract and then they get very cold, intstantaneously. Werner Kuhn described the physics behind this effect in 1934, and my experiments confirm his work. Rubber works much like an ideal gas - it gets warm when you compress it, and cold when you expand it. Ever shot a co2 pellet gun? Then you may have noticed that the container gets very cold after a few shots, and the shots are getting weaker when that happens. Same effect.
The video clearly proves the fact that a long pause for aiming lowers the speed of the shot dramatically - because the drawn out bands loose heat, and therefore energy.
Last not least, a lead ball is fired three times against a rock - and it gets about 20 centrigrade warmer because of the deforming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL5C_JzZyV4
This video uses a great piece of equipment for learning more about rubber bands: A thermal camera! This professional product made by Jenoptics has a resolution of 360x240, means, more than 86,000 laser thermoscopes are building an image. Much like the "heat visor" the predators use in the movies!
This way, heat structures can be made visible. It is mostly used to check how well a house is insulated, but it is also fantastic for scientific experiments.
Here, the thermal aspect of slingshot rubber is researched with the camera. It turns out that rubber bands store the muscle energy the shooter invests by drawing out into thermal energy - the bands warm up very quickly. When the shot falls, the bands retract and then they get very cold, intstantaneously. Werner Kuhn described the physics behind this effect in 1934, and my experiments confirm his work. Rubber works much like an ideal gas - it gets warm when you compress it, and cold when you expand it. Ever shot a co2 pellet gun? Then you may have noticed that the container gets very cold after a few shots, and the shots are getting weaker when that happens. Same effect.
The video clearly proves the fact that a long pause for aiming lowers the speed of the shot dramatically - because the drawn out bands loose heat, and therefore energy.
Last not least, a lead ball is fired three times against a rock - and it gets about 20 centrigrade warmer because of the deforming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL5C_JzZyV4
