Re: A Parents' Day gem

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> It's easier said than done!.  Here are some problems that you will face
> .... some easier to solve than others in the practical world.
>
> 1. How do you release a bullet so it starts falling vertically at the
> same instant that the second bullet is fired horizontally?

That's why I allow 10% shmutz, Herb. Can you release a bullet
simultaneously with a "3-2-1-go" countdown reproducably to ten
percent of the fall time over 1.5 m (0.55 s)? Any decent musician
can manage more than a factor of ten better than that.

> 2. It should take only a  half second  for a bullet in free fall to drop
> 1.5 meters. In the same time, a fired bullet travelling horizontally will
> be about a half mile away.  How do you determine which one hits the lake
> surface first? Telescopic coincidence timers?

I'd drop the bullet on a drumhead (or equivalent noise maker) and
view the impact with a telescope. It occurs to me that we might get
Ludwik to videotape it, too. 1/30 s is better than 10%, and both
sound and video can be rerun. I also changed my mind about doing this
offhand. It would be better to do it bench mounted, clamped to a tree.
Then boresighting would be easy.

One caution here: you guys can't use my lake! The RCMP office is just 250
meters from the lake, and they don't take kindly to private individuals
discharging firearms in public parks. We have had lots of it in movies,
however. The house that gets blown up in the movie "Time Cop" was blown
up in the park about 100 meters from my back door. Lousy movie, but it
was fun to have that house blown up three times (one was an outtake - I
have it on videotape, however). The production companies always tell us
if there will be gunfire in the middle of the night.

Leigh (from Hollywood North)