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A normal bullet proof vest is fairly rigid so that will distribute the force. There are also multiple layers, which does some absorption. The energy has to go be disipated somewhere. This stuff looks quite thin, which means it does not have much rigidity, and there is no way it can absorb energy in such thinness. The material stretches a hell of a lot (while absorbing the energy), but does not break, which why they talk about the bullet being sealed. If you put a few inches between you and this material, you might not get hurt. However, it may kill you if the bullet hits the right spot. Before the material has absorbed all the energy (and your body), it is possible the bullet will hit your heart. SOmewhat similar to the idea of why the huns would wear silk shirts. The arrow did not penetrate the silk, which allowed the arrow to be removed with minimum damage.
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How about bullet proof computer parts?
Copper Heat Sink stopped a 45 cal 385 grain copper jacket bullet at roughly 1900 fps
Heat Sink impact 1
Heat Sink Impact 2
Heat Sink Impact 3
Heat Sink Impact 4
Hard Drive...Not so much....
Err sorry HD
Looks like about a 3 inch thick piece of glassy rubber? I would think 3 inches of allot of materials would stop a relatively slow moving 9mm handgun round. Let’s see that same piece of whatever it is stop 50bmg.
Just for the math folks here...
The 1/4inch thick copper heat sink was hit at roughly 1900 fps with a 385 grain round
The 9mm luger has about 115 grains at 1100 fps
So...
The round shot at the heat sink had roughly 3085 foot pounds of energy
The 9 mm round about 309 foot pounds of energy
That’s nearly 10 times the energy hitting the heat sink.
For argument sake the most typical round currently used by NATO is the 5.56mm round, it has about 1800 foot pounds of energy. That’s roughly 5.8 times the energy of the 9mm round tested. It looks like it travelled about half way through or roughly 1.5 inches... time 5.8 times the energy stopping power needed... that’s 8.7inches thick to stop a relatively mundane military round. I don't know about you but no vehicle or human is going to have 8.7 inches thick of any material to stop a bullet no matter how light it may be.
Imagine Forest Gump with a 9 inch thick helmet on his head?
Either way it’s still pretty cool.
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Not quite right. Thicker metal has a lot more resistance to bending. A 2x6 is going to bend 4 times less than a 2x4. Resisting penetration is a more linear problem. The bullet did not penetrate the copper plate, so we are not sure that a bullet that has twice the energy would penetrate or not. we know that if we double the plate, then a bullet with twice the energy will not penetrate, but also will not deform the plate as much.
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A bullet with 1/2 more energy cut through the copper plate like butter without even deforming it. Everything has a breaking point. You are correct that when your talking about the extreme forces that bullets put on things penetration is neither consistent nor linear. However when the penetration ability of a well known mild round goes halfway through something a high powered round will generally eat it for lunch. Take a bullet proof vest as an example. It will easily stop a 9mm round without much more than a bruise. Hit that same vest with a .308 and I wouldn't want to be the guy standing behind the guy with the vest, let alone the guy wearing it. Even if a 3 inch piece of that material was effective at stopping a rifle round 3 inches is still far too thick to be practical to be worn as armour. There are thinner and stronger materials even if they are heavier. The weight gain in the relatively small amount of material required for a helmet or chest protection is of less importance than bulk. I could see this having applications in armour for vehicles where bulk is of less concern than weight. I still think we are are talking about at the very least double thickness of that material to be effective for any improved body armour. I would imagine they will make it better are time goes on though. ![Smile | :)](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/smiley_smile.gif)
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Actually think that the real solution would have to be some sort of composit, like used for tank armor. maybe have a layer of this material on the outside to containthe bullet, in 2nd layer that will absorb and distribute the energy, and maybe a last layer of this material to deal with fragments. You do not want the sedondary fragments inside the body so they need to be fished out one by one.
3 inches would not be a problem. People where down jackets that thick, it would be the weight of anything that would be effective.
50 cal would probably take off an arm even if it did not penetrate.
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