Exterior Ballistics of Rockets

Forensic Ballistics

Forensic ballistics is the application of ballistics for forensic purposes. The basis is formed by wound ballistics. Two main mechanisms of injury are differentiated: the crush-mechanism resulting in the permanent cavity and the stretch-mechanism resulting in the temporary cavity. The missile-tissue interactions such as yawing, deformation, fragmentation, and bone contact are explained here and...

Congreve ’ S Rational Rockets

This article examines the early development of military rockets devised by the English inventor and Royal Society Fellow William Congreve in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Congreve’s efforts to imitate Indian war rockets used against the British in Mysore are set within a number of local and global contexts that saw increasing attempts by Europeans to imitate eastern pyrotechnics w...

William Congreve ’ S Rational Rockets

This article examines the early development of military rockets devised by the English inventor and Royal Society Fellow William Congreve in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Congreve’s efforts to imitate Indian war rockets used against the British in Mysore are set within a number of local and global contexts that saw increasing attempts by Europeans to imitate eastern pyrotechnics w...

Ballistics: A Study of the Expert Witness

Internal ballistics of a pneumatic potato cannon

Basic laws of thermodynamics and mechanics are used to analyse an air gun. Such devices are often employed in outdoor physics demonstrations to launch potatoes using compressed gas that is here assumed to expand reversibly and adiabatically. Reasonable agreement is found with reported muzzle speeds for such homebuilt cannons. The treatment is accessible to undergraduate students who have taken ...