Penetration predictor by Poncelet

[McCall911]

(I know, I know. Too many P's! )

This may be of interest to some who don't mind "doing metric."
Note: Make sure the C1 value is set to 1 instead of 1000, and the C0 value set to 4!

I found this website which deals with the penetration predictor as expounded by the French mathematician/engineer, Jean-Victor Poncelet:

http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Poncelet/Poncelet_english.htm

I don't know how accurate this mathematical monstrosity is, but I thought it was fun to play with.

The author, Lutz Moeller, is a nice, knowledgeable guy. But, as you can see, his English...well, it needs a little work.

 

[RyanM]

It's not very accurate. Says a 124 grain 9mm FMJ only penetrates 21 cm. 8.3 inches? MacPherson's equations say 29.5 inches. That's off by a ton.

 

[McCall911]

It's not very accurate. Says a 124 grain 9mm FMJ only penetrates 21 cm. 8.3 inches? MacPherson's equations say 29.5 inches. That's off by a ton.

[Arrgh! Dratted cable company! I've been offline all weekend! ]

That's what I was thinking, Ryan, but I just wanted to get more opinions.

Also, if what I remember of my college math and physics still serves me, none of the formulas on that page make a lot of mathematical sense.

 

[RyanM]

I've learned calculus at least 4 seperate times and never retained the information for longer than a year. But it looks to me like those equations have very little basis in actual physics. If you're really interested in the math behind wound ballistics, I recommend Bullet Penetration. http://www.firearmstactical.com/bulletpenetration.htm

The equations are still pretty long, but they're easy enough to understand without a math background, and there are charts which you can use to look up how deep a given bullet will penetrate. I've also got the Bullet Penetration equations (plus some of my own) in a spreadsheet, which is still in the late alpha/early beta phase. If you're interested in looking at it, let me know. And if you buy the book, please let me know. I only had it on an interlibrary loan, and I forgot to write down the equations for skin penetration.

 

[McCall911]

I've learned calculus at least 4 seperate times and never retained the information for longer than a year. But it looks to me like those equations have very little basis in actual physics. If you're really interested in the math behind wound ballistics, I recommend Bullet Penetration. http://www.firearmstactical.com/bulletpenetration.htm

The equations are still pretty long, but they're easy enough to understand without a math background, and there are charts which you can use to look up how deep a given bullet will penetrate. I've also got the Bullet Penetration equations (plus some of my own) in a spreadsheet, which is still in the late alpha/early beta phase. If you're interested in looking at it, let me know. And if you buy the book, please let me know. I only had it on an interlibrary loan, and I forgot to write down the equations for skin penetration.

Ah, yes. "Bullet Penetration" by Duncan McPherson. This book seems to have several good recommendations, so it looks like I'll have to invest $40 in a copy pretty soon!

I may post what I can of his formulas a little later, if that's OK.

Heck, I might even post my own formula once I do a little more testing with it. The beauty of my formula is that it's short and sweet, but it could also be short, sweet, and wrong!!!