Physicists and Billiard Balls - Do You Know Your History?

Korsakoff

Korsakoff

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Here I was thinking that all this science overkill on making shots was a relatively new phenomenon. Guess I was wrong!

This was the Final Jeopardy question for Jeopardy! airing Labor Day 2024. Do you know the answer? (I'll post if not one gets it.)

Jeopardy! Airing Labor Day.jpg
 
A quick search shows that he has been discussed a few dozen times here. Dr. Dave helped with the translation of his book into English. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of that book in French or English, I have a few extra copies.
 
He also figured out if you wanna shoot something/somebody from a long way off you have to adjust for deflection of the speeding/spinning bullet. Top-notch snipers figure the CE into their shot solutions. At something like 1500yds you may have to correct around 5" due the CE. A lot depends on the latitude that the shot is taken from.
 
garczar said:
He also figured out if you wanna shoot something/somebody from a long way off you have to adjust for deflection of the speeding/spinning bullet. Top-notch snipers figure the CE into their shot solutions. At something like 1500yds you may have to correct around 5" due the CE. A lot depends on the latitude that the shot is taken from.
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Right. I was surprised to learn that the earth’s rotation was one of the many calculations included when setting up the Norden bombsight for a mission.
 
DynoDan said:
Right. I was surprised to learn that the earth’s rotation was one of the many calculations included when setting up the Norden bombsight for a mission.
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And it still wasn't ANYWHERE close to as accurate as some thought. normal accuracy was around 15mils(15ft for every 1000 foot of altitude), often it was 3-4x worse.
 
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latitude has an effect. but shooting north or south is where it deflects the most left or right, depending on your hemisphere.

and east or west no sideways effect but a vertical one.
 
garczar said:
He also figured out if you wanna shoot something/somebody from a long way off you have to adjust for deflection of the speeding/spinning bullet. Top-notch snipers figure the CE into their shot solutions. At something like 1500yds you may have to correct around 5" due the CE. A lot depends on the latitude that the shot is taken from.
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It also depends if you shoot east or west du to the earth moving between time of ignition and time of impact.
A 308 at 1000 yards changes by ~2" E/W -- west hits higher, east hits lower.
 
I’d bet a large percentage of the members here knew the answer.

Did the 3 contestants get it correct?
 
garczar said:
And it still wasn't ANYWHERE close to as accurate as some thought. normal accuracy was around 15mils(15ft for every 1000 foot of altitude), often it was 3-4x worse.
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And that was under perfect conditions (when no one was shooting at you, and your friends weren’t going down in flames). Many B17 bombs landed miles off target.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Ummm... No. Both are involved. You can't do any of the physics without including the geometry.
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Need to be careful here, as physics contains geometry. That is physics is a strict superset of geometry.
It is easier if one considers geometry as the linear parts of physics.
 
It was thanks to M. Coriolis that I understood how to aim a swerve shot. I used to have a copy of his book on my key ring (in digital form).
 
Bob Jewett said:
A quick search shows that he has been discussed a few dozen times here. Dr. Dave helped with the translation of his book into English. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of that book in French or English, I have a few extra copies.
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I’ll take both!
 
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