MetaFilter posts tagged with bullet

Brittle Bullet

Rinku — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:58:10 -0800

1,000,000FPS video of bullet impacts. Stay tuned for the glass, ballistics gel, and bullets impacting each other in the air. Warning: unnecessary techno music. More compilation videos of slow motion impacts on mattrece's channel; videos of individual impacts with technical details can be found on the creator's site.

Hand-built bullet trains, made-to-order

armage — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:08:51 -0800

Yamashita Kogyosho (jp) is a small manufacturer of about 30 people based in Kudamatsu, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. Like many small urban factories (so-called "machikoba"), they specialize in precision metalwork under contract to major corporations. But Yamashita Kogyosho is special: they create the noses for bullet trains. By hand. (relevant scenes begin at 2:54 in the video above) Kiyoto Yamashita, the founder, began by hammering out the nose cones for the original 0 Series Shinkansen in 1963 for Hitachi. Yamashita Kogyosho craftsmen have since created the noses for the N700 Series and 500 Series Shinkansen, the Taiwan High Speed 700T Train, and the 500 kmh experimental maglev train, among others. Today, the man in charge of actually crafting these nose cones is Jiro Kunimura. Using sheets of aluminum only a few millimeters thick, it takes him approximately three or four weeks to complete one 15 meter-long nose, and he and his team can produce up to 20 per year. Yamashita and his company were recognized in 2007 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Award, which recognizes unique contributions to Japanese manufacturing. Monodzukuri (or monozukuri) literally means "the making of things," but in Japan refers to an entire way of thinking about manufacturing and the economy. However, the company's chief concern isn't orders -- they have enough for the next three years -- but rather passing on these unique skills to the next generation. It takes ten years to master the technique and only constant practice makes perfect. Interested? They're recruiting.

If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.

jonson — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:23:13 -0800

'In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife. But this method doesn't work with a tomato". Finally, a blade worthy of Hattori Hanzo, so sharp it can slice a bullet in two.

Bullet Time Photography

jonson — Mon, 09 Dec 2002 09:54:14 -0800

Bullets Frozen in Mid-Impact. This may have been posted before, but I couldn't find it; it's a series of photographs of bullets hitting objects, taken with a VERY high speed camera, frozen in mid-impact. This is NOT, for the record, an invitation to discuss your POV on gun control.