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"Peace Through Superior Firepower"
Ø40mm
H8-28
I like strength training, catapults, computer stuff, shorthand, mechanical engineering.
My Wife likes, cooking, going out, pole dancing, handbags, clothes, holidays, sleeping.
This is because I am male and naturally gravitate towards manly pursuits, whereas my Wife is female and naturally gravitates towards womanly pursuits.
Even when we might agree on the same things I tend to like them for manly reasons whereas my Wife likes them for womanly reasons. For example today I bought a pair of walking shoes and admired them for their functional hiking shoe nature. Whereas my Wife liked the shoes because they looked fashionable (apparently).
The catapult is mainly of interest to men because it is a weapon and men are interested in weapons and Rambo movies. A catapult is very cheap to operate. 99% of the ammunition (ball bearings) is recovered by firing into the barrel. So expense on ammunition is miniscule. The latex bands break quite frequently but a 2 metre roll of latex lasts me for maybe a year and is cheap. The catapult frame is also cheap and lasts forever.
Excel
Lets look at the velocity and energy for the Hegarty H8-28 shown above. I took 11 shots at the chronograph and inputted the results into a spreadsheet for the following averages;
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92.6 m/s (303.9 ft/s) - This is 'muzzle velocity' of the 5/16" steel ball bearing.
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8.8 Joules (6.5 ft.lbs) - This is kinetic energy due to the velocity of the mass of the bearing.
Let's compare this to a typical American gun owner's ammunition that of a .50 BMG shot as used for example in the Barrett M82;
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838.2 m/s (2750 ft/s) - This is 'muzzle velocity' of the 0.5" bullet.
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17072.5 Joules (12592 ft.lbs) - This is kinetic energy due to the velocity of the mass of the bullet.
As you can see the typical American's weaponry is noticeably more powerful than the typical UK owner's weaponry.
31st March 2024