What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
February 9, 2021 6:01 PM Subscribe
SmarterEveryDay made a cannon that launches a baseball at 1000 mph. Then they did what any good engineer would do. They launched it at a dummy.
Suppose you’re watching from a hilltop outside the city. The first thing you see is a blinding light, far outshining the sun. This gradually fades over the course of a few seconds, and a growing fireball rises into a mushroom cloud. Then, with a great roar, the blast wave arrives, tearing up trees and shredding houses.
Everything within roughly a mile of the park is leveled, and a firestorm engulfs the surrounding city. The baseball diamond is now a sizable crater, centered a few hundred feet behind the former location of the backstop.
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:19 PM on February 9, 2021 [51 favorites]
Everything within roughly a mile of the park is leveled, and a firestorm engulfs the surrounding city. The baseball diamond is now a sizable crater, centered a few hundred feet behind the former location of the backstop.
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered "hit by pitch", and would be eligible to advance to first base.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:19 PM on February 9, 2021 [51 favorites]
They should get together with the Deadliest Warrior guys to test whether a baseball cannon could defeat a samurai
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:22 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Saxon Kane at 6:22 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Leotrotsky got to the relevant What If? before I could :)
posted by tavella at 6:30 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 6:30 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
And if you don't like it, you can stay the hell back! SUPERSONIC!
Well, just stay the hell back anyway, OK?
In watching the slo-mos for the last test, I had to remember that even though the ball slowed down at a certain point, it was still over Mach 1.
posted by droplet at 6:55 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Well, just stay the hell back anyway, OK?
In watching the slo-mos for the last test, I had to remember that even though the ball slowed down at a certain point, it was still over Mach 1.
posted by droplet at 6:55 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
It’s a bit long and rambling video, but here’s someone who built a supersonic trebuchet.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:03 PM on February 9, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by ShooBoo at 7:03 PM on February 9, 2021 [11 favorites]
It caught fire going through the ball glove like in a cartoon. Nice.
posted by phunniemee at 7:57 PM on February 9, 2021 [10 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 7:57 PM on February 9, 2021 [10 favorites]
If only Super Dave were around to try and hit it blindfolded...
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:05 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:05 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just like I thought. Rock always wins. Rock goes straight through paper.
posted by mikelieman at 8:12 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 8:12 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
That little halo of (smoke?? condensation?? supersonic-boundary air???) following the baseball is fascinating.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:19 PM on February 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:19 PM on February 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
I am disappointed they didn't try out bats
posted by dis_integration at 8:25 PM on February 9, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 8:25 PM on February 9, 2021 [8 favorites]
that xkcd what if really deserves the Discovery Channel-esque simulation and 3d animation treatment that is typically afforded world-killing asteroids and whatnot.
posted by logicpunk at 8:57 PM on February 9, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by logicpunk at 8:57 PM on February 9, 2021 [7 favorites]
That was highly entertaining.
posted by zardoz at 9:03 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 9:03 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
I spurned this thing I don't know how many times when YouTube was trying to get me to watch it.
Boy was I ever dumb.
posted by jamjam at 10:24 PM on February 9, 2021
Boy was I ever dumb.
posted by jamjam at 10:24 PM on February 9, 2021
SPOILER
When the ball goes through all 9 gloves, it's really nifty that you can hear how much each glove slows the ball as the time between hits gets longer and longer.
posted by straight at 10:54 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
When the ball goes through all 9 gloves, it's really nifty that you can hear how much each glove slows the ball as the time between hits gets longer and longer.
posted by straight at 10:54 PM on February 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
Yesss. A few years back, I bet my brother that I could shoot a marshmallow through 1/4" plywood, and I ended up with a somewhat similar contraption - at 1/10th scale, and 25% of the pressure, of course... and that was already scary enough
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 2:26 AM on February 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 2:26 AM on February 10, 2021 [5 favorites]
I appreciate that he is wearing goggles. Like you are launching a baseball so fast that it turns into a liquid, but I'm sure those 5$ glasses from Rickel's will protect you.
posted by Literaryhero at 2:49 AM on February 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 2:49 AM on February 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
I appreciate that he is wearing goggles. Like you are launching a baseball so fast that it turns into a liquid, but I'm sure those 5$ glasses from Rickel's will protect you.
Nice blast shield around the high-speed camera, though.
posted by mikelieman at 5:29 AM on February 10, 2021
Nice blast shield around the high-speed camera, though.
posted by mikelieman at 5:29 AM on February 10, 2021
Adam and Jamie would have used ballistics gel or a pig carcass, just sayin'.
posted by briank at 6:37 AM on February 10, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by briank at 6:37 AM on February 10, 2021 [7 favorites]
Kind of disappointed they didn't match it up with the earlier Mad Batter.
posted by xedrik at 7:44 AM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 7:44 AM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
I appreciate that he is wearing goggles. Like you are launching a baseball so fast that it turns into a liquid, but I'm sure those 5$ glasses from Rickel's will protect you.
Those are probably for protection from any incidental flying debris. If you watch the videos you can see lots of grass and dirt being blown around by the compressed air from their original cannon tests from an earlier video.
What struck me as weird is that they thought the fire was from the impact with the second solo glove (the weave) but the video shows that the ball had started trailing fire even before impact with the glove.
posted by srboisvert at 8:07 AM on February 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
Those are probably for protection from any incidental flying debris. If you watch the videos you can see lots of grass and dirt being blown around by the compressed air from their original cannon tests from an earlier video.
What struck me as weird is that they thought the fire was from the impact with the second solo glove (the weave) but the video shows that the ball had started trailing fire even before impact with the glove.
posted by srboisvert at 8:07 AM on February 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
Yes! I had logged on just to comment on this. I was surprised that Destin was uncertain about this because from all my NASA fanboy years had trained me to assume flame comes not from impact or friction, but from super heating compressed air. It seems especially so given the flame is brightest just as it impacts the glove.
Though I think that trail is from the shock wave...
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:20 AM on February 10, 2021
Though I think that trail is from the shock wave...
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:20 AM on February 10, 2021
What's always fascinating to me in these ultra-slow impact videos is the magnitude of shockwave distortion to physical objects that resumes its former shape without a visible trace.
To look at the dummy afterwards, you'd think the ball went through it almost as cleanly as a laser beam, but on replay the shock of impact massively distorts the entire thing. It looks like wacky cartoon physics but then you can't see any sign that it happened at all.
posted by straight at 9:10 AM on February 10, 2021 [4 favorites]
To look at the dummy afterwards, you'd think the ball went through it almost as cleanly as a laser beam, but on replay the shock of impact massively distorts the entire thing. It looks like wacky cartoon physics but then you can't see any sign that it happened at all.
posted by straight at 9:10 AM on February 10, 2021 [4 favorites]
That was a lot of fun!
Reminds me of the Dave Barry column about a bunch of engineers lighting a barbeque:
At one end of the room, a small compressed-air cannon that fired a ball bearing. At the other, a stuffed animal, specifically a monkey.
THE CANNON
Set up with a light-sensing "gate" at the end of the barrel, such that when the projectile passed through, it cut off power to an electromagnet at the other end of the room.
THE MONKEY
Fitted with, on its chest, a metal plate painted with a target, and on its head, a little metal hat.
THE EXPERIMENT
The monkey was suspended from the ceiling, by the magnet, so that the center of the target was the precise height of the cannon. (We aimed it with a small laser.)
As the ball bearing left the barrel, it did two things: 1) began immediately to drop, and 2) turned off the magnet holding up the monkey. That meant the projectile and the bullet began to drop at the same moment (more or less) and at the same rate.
It worked *beautifully*.
The projectile hit the target every single time. We took to taping tissue paper on the target so we could see where it hit. Just about dead-center! We repeated this about 20 times in an hour.
BONUS
The last rep, we decided to aim it at the monkey's face. We were 17 and goofballs. We also cranked up the cannon as high as we dared.
PSSSSSS-BLAM!!!
The monkey went pinwheeling backwards, we roared with laughter.
But where was the ball bearing?! We looked all over the place - no luck.
Someone picked up the monkey...embedded in its *mouth* (the face was plastic)...the ball bearing!!!
I tell you, going to a high school with a carefree physics teacher who maintained good connections with his university department was AWESOME.
posted by Caxton1476 at 9:54 AM on February 10, 2021 [8 favorites]
Reminds me of the Dave Barry column about a bunch of engineers lighting a barbeque:
If you know anything about (1) engineers, and (2) guys in general, you know what happened: The purpose of the charcoal- lighting shifted from cooking hamburgers to seeing how fast they could light the charcoal.The compressed air cannon also led to fond recollections of high school physics class experiment.
From the vacuum cleaner, they escalated to using a propane torch, then an acetylene torch. Then Goble started using compressed pure oxygen, which caused the charcoal to burn much faster, because as you recall from chemistry class, fire is essentially the rapid combination of oxygen with the cosine to form the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (or something along those lines).
By this point Goble was getting pretty good times. But in the world of competitive charcoal-lighting, "pretty good" does not cut the mustard. Thus Goble hit upon the idea of using -- get ready -- liquid oxygen.
At one end of the room, a small compressed-air cannon that fired a ball bearing. At the other, a stuffed animal, specifically a monkey.
THE CANNON
Set up with a light-sensing "gate" at the end of the barrel, such that when the projectile passed through, it cut off power to an electromagnet at the other end of the room.
THE MONKEY
Fitted with, on its chest, a metal plate painted with a target, and on its head, a little metal hat.
THE EXPERIMENT
The monkey was suspended from the ceiling, by the magnet, so that the center of the target was the precise height of the cannon. (We aimed it with a small laser.)
As the ball bearing left the barrel, it did two things: 1) began immediately to drop, and 2) turned off the magnet holding up the monkey. That meant the projectile and the bullet began to drop at the same moment (more or less) and at the same rate.
It worked *beautifully*.
The projectile hit the target every single time. We took to taping tissue paper on the target so we could see where it hit. Just about dead-center! We repeated this about 20 times in an hour.
BONUS
The last rep, we decided to aim it at the monkey's face. We were 17 and goofballs. We also cranked up the cannon as high as we dared.
PSSSSSS-BLAM!!!
The monkey went pinwheeling backwards, we roared with laughter.
But where was the ball bearing?! We looked all over the place - no luck.
Someone picked up the monkey...embedded in its *mouth* (the face was plastic)...the ball bearing!!!
I tell you, going to a high school with a carefree physics teacher who maintained good connections with his university department was AWESOME.
posted by Caxton1476 at 9:54 AM on February 10, 2021 [8 favorites]
I am disappointed at the lack of Homerpalooza quotes. And maybe a couple from the baseball episode.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:49 AM on February 10, 2021
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:49 AM on February 10, 2021
Scrolling through their other SED videos: assembling a grain bin for farmers was interesting.
Also, that Oscilloscope shape-music-art thing was something, if you can get thru the awkward pseudo-rave sequence in the middle, then the interview with the tech-beatnik Austrian artists is great.
posted by ovvl at 3:38 PM on February 10, 2021
Also, that Oscilloscope shape-music-art thing was something, if you can get thru the awkward pseudo-rave sequence in the middle, then the interview with the tech-beatnik Austrian artists is great.
posted by ovvl at 3:38 PM on February 10, 2021
They should get together with the Deadliest Warrior guys to test whether a baseball cannon could defeat a samurai
You know that I must link the baseball game in Samurai Champloo.
posted by sukeban at 5:35 AM on February 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
You know that I must link the baseball game in Samurai Champloo.
posted by sukeban at 5:35 AM on February 11, 2021 [1 favorite]
that xkcd what if really deserves the Discovery Channel-esque simulation and 3d animation treatment
The SmarterEveryDay canon, on the other hand, deserves to exist in a King of the Hill episode (the ultimate propane accessory).
posted by rongorongo at 5:45 AM on February 11, 2021
The SmarterEveryDay canon, on the other hand, deserves to exist in a King of the Hill episode (the ultimate propane accessory).
posted by rongorongo at 5:45 AM on February 11, 2021
« Older Being a Go-Getter Is No Fun | Siskel & Ebert give it two buns up Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:12 PM on February 9, 2021