Sunday, February 10, 2013

Impact Force of a Paintball

Alternate title:  Y CAN'T MCBERS MATH?
Alternate title:  The (Un)Scientific Method

http://www.mcarterbrown.com/forums/dead-zone/125903-physics-paintball-sort.html

Here's my back-of-napkin calculation.

1/2 mv^2 = F * d

Mass = 0.0032kg
Velocity = 88 m/s
d = 0.008636 (half the diameter of a paintball; will explain later)

Average force = 1434 Newtons.  This is obviously an average force.

Assuming average head is about 8 lbs (3.63kg):

F = m * a

1434 = 3.63 * a

a = 395 m/s^2

g = 9.8 m/s^2

a = 40.3g


Alone, not enough to meet the 70g threshold for concussion that's thrown around, but high enough to consider, especially given how many variables might be involved.

More on this later.