This video explores a fascinating historical and scientific experiment aiming to replicate a rare civil war occurrence where two bullets collided nose-to-nose and fused upon impact. The host reflects on his motivation, engineering challenges, and the safety precautions necessary for this task, including drawing from his background as a missile flight test engineer. He highlights key contributions from collaborators with expertise in electronics, mechanical design, and ammunition reloading.

The experiment requires intricate setup, using meticulously engineered equipment and custom-loaded 45 long Colt cartridges. Despite the varied challenges such as timing discrepancies, mechanical inconsistencies, and ammunition properties, the team persists in aligning two bullets to recreate the historical fusion event. Through numerous attempts and adjustments, they aim to closely mimic the conditions of the original event, although complete fusion remains elusive.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. momentum [moʊˈmentəm] - (noun) - The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. - Synonyms: (impetus, force, drive)

Now, the interesting thing is, this is not a glancing blow, like total momentum transfer between the two.

2. humility [hjuːˈmɪləti] - (noun) - A modest view of one's own importance; humbleness. - Synonyms: (modesty, meekness, humbleness)

And the way we did that is intellectual humility.

3. inconsistencies [ˌɪnkənˈsɪstənsi] - (noun) - Instances of not staying the same throughout or exhibiting contradictions. - Synonyms: (variations, discrepancies, irregularities)

...these mechanical inconsistencies. Because these things are not repeatable in terms of time.

4. vortex [ˈvɔːrtɛks] - (noun) - A mass of whirling fluid or air, especially a whirlpool or whirlwind. - Synonyms: (whirl, spiral, swirl)

David, a mechanical designer, who you may recognize from the vortex collision episode.

5. velocity [vəˈlɑːsəti] - (noun) - The speed of something in a given direction. - Synonyms: (speed, rate, rapidity)

And I just thought it would be great to be able to measure the velocity of the bullet

6. datum [ˈdeɪtəm] - (noun) - A fixed starting point of a scale or operation. - Synonyms: (basis, reference, standard)

We decided not to move the north gun. It was going to be our datum.

7. hypothesis [haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs] - (noun) - A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation. - Synonyms: (theory, supposition, assumption)

Our assumption is it's because we're firing the bullets too fast and our lead is not the same type of lead used in the civil war.

8. fiducial [fɪˈduːʃəl] - (noun) - A reference point or standard used for alignment and measurement. - Synonyms: (benchmark, marker, guide)

And I decided to make what's called a fiducial. This is a measuring stick of sorts, and I decided to put smarter every day on it.

9. suppressor [səˈprɛsər] - (noun) - A device attached to the muzzle of a firearm to reduce the noise and flash generated by firing. - Synonyms: (silencer, muffler, noise dampener)

Get smart people in your life who love you enough to smile and tell you you're wrong.

10. supersonic [ˌsuːpərˈsɒnɪk] - (adjective) - Involving or denoting a speed greater than that of sound. - Synonyms: (ultrasonic, high-speed, rapid)

In fact, we even used the shield as a part of the supersonic baseball cannon.

Bullets HITTING Bullets in Slow Motion - THE IMPOSSIBLE SHOT - Smarter Every Day 287

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. I am at the American Museum of Natural History, or as some call it, the Smithsonian Museum. This is something that I saw ten years ago, and it changed the way I think about bullets and ballistics and probability. It's two bullets from the Civil War that met nose-on. These two mini ball bullets met nose to nose in Fredericksburg in December 1862. Look at that, two perfectly aligned bullets. This is not a glancing blow, but a total momentum transfer.

I've seen many attempts to reproduce this, but they all fail. I'm going to try this today. It will take a little engineering, but let's give it a shot. I've had some internal conflict about doing this video because Internet video can be sensational. I want to do it in an intelligent, respectful way, and I want to take you along with me. Let's think together about how we're going to do this safely. Never do this at home. I've done complicated things with larger groups in a safe way, thanks to the atmosphere of intellectual humility.

Let's get started. If we're going to hit a bullet with a bullet like this, we need guns. We have two empty guns, and we need to aim them so a bullet goes right in the middle. The problem is that me being over there with the other gun is in the firing path. Let's say we load the gun. How do we do it safely because we're downrange from the other gun? We have to over-engineer this. In our design, Ernie is excellent at electronic design. Jeremy Fielding, a fantastic mechanical designer, helped with the safety shielding. My buddy David, a mechanical designer, reloaded ammunition. We decided on the 45 long Colt cartridge for this experiment, as it looks old like a Civil War bullet.

We're finally doing the video I've wanted to do. Our test spot is a bowl-shaped dirt area. The first thing when setting up is establishing the center of the earth. We made this big I beam, our datum. With the guns, they're aimed to intercept bullets in the middle. We have adjustments for both azimuth and elevation. Jeremy helped design a unique contraption that allows us to load bullets without being downstream. We created a checklist with stick figure drawings to ensure safety and went over safety procedures with experts.

We started off by testing each gun independently to ensure all the hardware worked properly. After adjustments, we realized the holes from the bullets proved they were a little off. We used a laser to make alignments. Ultimately, the north gun is our datum, and we adjusted the south gun accordingly. After several tests and adjustments, we attempted to see a high-speed bullet impact with better exposure time and frame rates.

After many trials, both bullets were aligned to hit each other, but without successfully fusing as seen with Civil War bullets. The reasons might be the projectiles' speed and material differences from the original bullets. We attempted using slower bullets by loading with minimal powder.

Despite this challenge, the experiment yielded exciting results, and work towards improvement continues. Even accidental experiments, like the Ridge Wallet promotion, became unexpectedly engaging and showcased unexpected results.

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