Beauty In Destruction

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg]

This is not a hack. In fact it’s a promotional montage for a collection of scientific equipment that few of us could likely afford. But like yesterday’s giant marionettes over Berlin, sometimes even a costly and delicately-orchestrated achievement transcends its own not-a-hack-ness, fulfilling our brains’ lust for wonderment all the same.

Kurzzeit of Germany produces ballistics measurement equipment. The video depicts various combinations of projectiles and targets at up to one million frames per second, revealing unexpected beauty in hitherto unseen phenomena, and is the best damn ten minutes you will waste on the internet all day!

49 thoughts on “Beauty In Destruction

  1. @ faelenor: Do you realize you are nearly 100 times more likely to be saved by a firearm than to be killed by one? If you eliminate suicide That moves to almost 200 times. I would have more respect. A firearm may have saved your life already and you never even new it.

  2. after some estimations:
    The wires explode in less than 2s of video.
    let’s say 40 frames, that makes 40µs.
    judging by the wire gauge on each ends, I would say 20 cms of explosive.
    that gives 200µs/m or 200ms/km or 5km/s
    it’s roughly the speed of exploding wire.

  3. This is very nice. Nice music with excellent visuals.

    I agree a version without the copyright would be nice. I guess they want mass solicitation if it goes viral.

    Also it’s pretty sad some moron even trolled these comments with that gun control crap. Sure firearms need moderation, but so do shitty comments that are out of place and repetitive. We need an asshole with power to ban emails here so we can at least make these idiots make an effort when trolling.

  4. To everybody arguing about guns and safety: shut up. Guns kill, the only argument is whether it was deserved or intentional or not.

    To everyone else: Depending on the application (shooting people vs shooting vehicles), the bullets that are destroyed upon impact are the best for shooting people, while the ones that went right through everything are the best for damaging vehicles (particularly engine blocks). the reason is that when a bullet is destroyed, the kinetic energy it had is transferred to the surrounding material. you can see what happens to aluminum, steel, and plate glass here- now imagine what flesh would be like at that speed, all that energy turning it to a small tidal wave.

    Fascinating stuff.

  5. Astonishing. Ballistic beauty.
    If you ever have the chance to hire or use a highspeed camera – DO IT!! It’s worth the money. I rented a 2000fps camera and even that speed reveals some incredible unexpectedness from the everyday… (and to babbl eup there, we even tried a cumshot, im not kidding. drew straws for it.)

  6. Now, this is what salesmen should play on their full-HD plasma’s, not animals and flowers and shit like that. I can only image how wicked awesome this would look in HD.

    Needs moar resolution.

  7. @arkenklo

    LOL its not enough that this cam records a frame every microsecond, but now you want hd?

    haha just kidding, that’d be fooking awesome. i dont think camera technology is quite there yet. (i’d like to be proven wrong!)

  8. Ladies and Gentlemen, by watching this beautiful and fascinating vid, we have all witnessed something nobody before us in the history of mankind has seen! Its just incredible!
    Think of the implications of watching this footage, we are truly honoured to be living in this incredible age.
    Its comparable to when the victorians managed to photographically record horses galloping, and so properly witnessing that type of leg motion for the first time!
    Different bullets travel anywhere from 1000mph to 3000mph, possibly faster!
    Such a high frame rate, and such little light hitting the sensor that no colour information can realistically be discerned!
    I’m just awe-struck.
    Thank you.

  9. Kris in most of those cases, to the best of my “know”ledge….it saves your life from another firearm. Removing firearms from both sides save your life at least 1000 times above that.

    Aside from that I do agree that there is a beauty to this video, it just a damn shame people like to use tools like these, for more devious means.

  10. blizzarddemon. Remove guns and get stabbed. People have done succesfull genocides in africa without firearms, just machetes and spears. And some gasoline. If I ever get in to a situation where I would need a weapon to defend my well beeing, I’d rather have firearm than a knife.

  11. blizzarddemon. Remove guns and get stabbed. People have done succesfull genocides in africa without firearms, just machetes and spears. And some gasoline. If I ever get in to a situation where I would need a weapon to defend my well beeing, I’d rather have firearm than a knife.

    Also, Beatiful video.

  12. I wouldn’t mind seeing a version of this video with subtitles stating the type of bullet and the type of material. Some of the materials are easy to tell what they are, but others I’m still lost at. And I can recognize some of the bullets, but others are difficult to tell. Just my two cents :)

  13. I am wondering what is the substance at the end that makes every bullet go splat ? Kevlar ? Something newer ? I thought kevlar, like most metals, at least got deformed when hit by a bullet. This one literally doesn’t get a scratch.

  14. I’m SOOO glad that ballistic gel wasn’t my torso.
    It’s no wonder hollow-point projectiles are so lethal. Most of that kinetic energy is used up in
    about 5/1000ths of a second!

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