While Striking a Match With a Bullet, These Weird Things Happened- Smarter Every Day 294B

[@briantaylor9266]

An alternative hypothesis to powder escaping around the bullet would be that it's powder residue in the barrel from previous shots. Test this hypothesis by thoroughly cleaning the barrel, take a shot, and see if you still observe the specks preceding the bullet.

[@BenjySparky]

Yeah, I second this.☝️ I was about to say it, but you beat me to it.

[@zombieregime]

Youll always get a little blowby since rifle rounds, especially .22 lr or otherwise (ie, not meant for long range precision), dont fully mechanically engage the riflings like, say a tank or canon round would. Of course that is a tiny gap for unburned grains to make it through, but since the residue is a bit oily and carbonous I imagine that it is indeed more residue than anything. Although its not unheard of for some grains to make it out unburned even for 'underloaded' ammo. All that being said, I like your idea! I really want to see what the cardboard would pick up cleaning the barrel each time. Or just running a cloth down it vs a full clean with solvent, or a series of shots to see if the burn off of oil and solvent is evident.... Then again, I am one of those "who cares why? Do it just to gather data! Let someone else crunch through it for meaning..." types....

[@smartereveryday]

Great point!

[@nanaki-seto]

I can already tell you the first one is right. I use to shoot my old .22 Remington in doors with 550 fps ultra low velocity all the time they were short rifle and what little powder they had was always doing this. I also had long rifle rounds that were called 950 60 sniper why sniper don't know but they were as long as a long rifle lead and casing but had the casing of a short rifle 60 grain lead moving at 950 fps puts a pretty nice wallop on a target and these never had unburned powder. Short rifle rounds are known for curding up your long rifle rifles barrel

[@kodaspaws]

I knew there would be debate on this…ok, but what if, it’s actually bow pressure wave ? The compressed gas at the tip of the slug, following the edge of the round and expanding past the slug accelerating pushing the gas behind it….? It’s possible that the air pressure at the nose of the bullet is compressed and expanding as it travels down the body of the slug.

[@AZAce1064]

The match on the bullet was quite amazing. When I was a kid I shot wooden matches from my air rifle. So I learned that if you hit a concrete wall the match will instantly stick to the concrete and ignite, holding the match in place. Try it on the high speed camera.

[@666like616]

German gunsmith here - the non burned powder is always faster than the bullet it self and it sometimes even slips between the height difference of the rifling. Because the bullet does not fill the whole barrel in the diameter. hope it's understandable.

[@timhart1748]

I came here to say this exactly! And I have no experience but sometimes I have moments of brilliance.

[@666like616]

@@timhart1748 exactly that? so a fellow of the same profession? :D

[@sproutpits]

This, plus the fact that rimfire rounds tend to have a lot of unburnt powder.

[@Myrune1]

Ich bin es gewohnt, die Sätze meiner Frau zu übersetzen. Du hast es perfekt gemacht. Ich danke Ihnen für das Teilen. Now you can translate my horrible German prose.

[@wrwindsor]

Add to that the barrel is possibly not the same diameter and/or not perfectly round all the way down the bore. I have an 80s-vintage 10-22 that has a pinched bore where they (Ruger or a supplier for Ruger) dovetailed the barrel for the rear sight.

[@qrplife]

So could we say that you’re using match-grade ammunition? 😂

[@microcolonel]

Boooooo

[@spacedmanspiff1543]

Lol !

[@KTMFREEK1]

Fact checked ACCURATE!🫡👍

[@Roadiedave]

It was right there, and I didn't pick it up till you said it lol

[@alex0589]

take your like and go

[@JM-wr2fo]

That shot of the bullet "carrying" the match is ridiculous 😂😂

[@royreynolds108]

But awsome.

[@JM-wr2fo]

100%@@royreynolds108

[@NemoConsequentae]

Hilariously, wonderfully, ridiculous!

[@imightbebiased9311]

It looks like when the physics engine of the game you're playing does something derpy.

[@rdrangr]

Looks like a splinter is stuck in the hollow point which allowed the bullet to carry the match while still spinning. Wow!

[@nickh4911]

Another awesome video! I work at Remington in Arkansas, it looked like you were shooting CCI rounds which is one of our sister companies. If you ever want to do another manufacturing deep dive I would love to set you up with a tour of our facility!

[@microcolonel]

That would be so sick.

[@farmgrowncountrystrong]

Make this happen!!

[@snowboarderslis]

Yess!

[@dans_Learning_Curve]

*YES!!!!**** That would be epic!!

[@dans_Learning_Curve]

I hope Destin sees this! Tons of comments, easy to get lost. 🤔

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

That bullet pushing the match looks so ridiculous like it was a Monty Python sketch. It was like I could hear the laugh track playing as the match floated across the screen. 😂

[@Nf6xNet]

If not Monty Python, then maybe Benny Hill?

[@nelsonbrum8496]

I just watched the clip on my tablet, with Yakety Sax playing on my phone. 10/10

[@stevee5668]

"And now for something completely different."

[@jasonrubik]

@@Nf6xNet shrimps running on a treadmill ?!?! lol !

[@andiralosh2173]

[Benny Hill music plays]

[@peakfreak01]

I giggled waaayyyyy too much at the bullet carrying the match. 😂😂 Almost as much as Destin gets soooo excited at science stuff. Never stop being excited Destin, there's one Brit here that thrives off it. 😊

[@rogerhankins9991]

Hi Destin. Smokeless powder just doesn't burn efficiently at the low pressures of 22 short subsonic ammo. Powder might be jumping the gap, but I suspect you will find flakes of unburned powder in the bore AFTER the bullet leaves. When the bullet leaves the bore, the pressure drop can cause partially burnt flakes to stop burning and you get unburned and partially burned powder grains downrange. I have observed these laying on the snow when testing subsonic handloads.

[@buggsy5]

That is not unique to low pressure subsonic rounds. I have seen it with regular hunting rounds as well.

[@siztem]

"You can science-words this all you want" is my new favorite phrase

[@jebjim9391]

100% agree

[@SamuelGarnerKC]

Man I re-listened to that like 5 times it was so good 10:20

[@michaelkuhlmann4579]

That frame of a bullet pushing a match by another match would be a great tee-shirt. not to mention conversation-starter...

[@NicksWhipShop]

It's so crazy man! I still don't understand how the wind resistance didn't fold the match back and break it loose from the bullet. Also, the fact that you tried this ONE time at the very end of the night without even trying to make it happen is so awesome. What were the odds!?

[@mrlithium69]

the wind resistance and aerodynamics of it baffles me as well. the pivot point where it was weakly held makes no sense in my mind

[@bluegoose6550]

I'm thinking it must just be a timing thing. If we had more cameras before and after, we would see the wind resistance effect.

[@peterleyman3159]

Is it possible that there’s a column of gas carrying the match all the way from the barrel?

[@tropicsalt.]

What are the odds? I'd say about 1/1 at this stage.

[@NicksWhipShop]

haha! Very true. @@tropicsalt.

[@tcaabr]

Terrific video as always! After 33 years of teaching physics/chemistry in H.S., I will be retiring this May. I will miss showing your videos to my classes year after year!! On a side note, 12 years ago when you were starting your SED series, but before it exploded in popularity, you were the only person to comment on a video I posted of a demo involving the phase change of an iron crystal lattice. My demo sucked, by the way, but I found another one by Scott Milam entitled, "Solid Iron to Solid Iron Phase Change", that shows the expanding/contracting phenomenon better than mine. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[@jotchava]

That's so cool! And it didn't suck at all :) I thought your demo was great! Especially if Destin liked it haha

[@heatshield]

Very cool. Not sure exactly what I was seeing but you’ve given me something interesting to research later this morning.

[@douglastaylor43]

The best part of the video was seeing two friends having fun.

[@WarblesOnALot]

G'day, My father used to do a bit of small-town gunsmithing, after retiring from Engine Reconditioning..., and he often had people bring in old .22" Rifles chambered for the Long Rifle Ammunition, which had become progressively more likely to suffer failed extractions, torn Rims, and broken Extractors...; after someone had, at some point, used the weapon to do what you did - and fired .22" Short Rifle Ammunition through it - and the Hot Gasses would erode Pits in the Chamber, and if put away dirty - particularly in the days of Corrosive Primers..., the Eroded Pits then Corroded into Craters. And then, when later attempting to fire the Correct Ammunition, the longer Brass Cases, covered the Dings in the Chamber Wall ; and on firing the Brass would be "Fire-Formed" by the internal Pressure, into expanding into the Craters and locking the Case Into place. Once he removed the old dead Case, the Old Man would clean the Chamber and heat it up, gently with a Torch burning Propane, and after putting a hardwood Rod in the Barrel as a Tinker's Dam, he'd fill the Chamber with Silver Solder, wait till that cooled - and then re-drill the blocked Chamber, and Ream it back to meet the Specified size - but with all the pesky Craters successfully Backfilled... I hope you cleaned your Ruger afterwards...(?) ! But, if you didn't, and if it later presents with Sticky Breech Syndrome ; At least you'll start out knowing what'll be afoot, and how to rectify the problem. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

[@thomasbarlow4223]

Thank you for the post I've always wondered

[@WarblesOnALot]

@@thomasbarlow4223 G'day, No worries mate ! Have a good one, Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

[@rre9121]

3:47 What you have to remember is that, while the bullet is traveling horizontally, the contact surface of the bullet is moving downwards with respect to the match head. The edge of the bullet is effectively smacking downward on the match when it achieves contact.

[@mrlithium69]

i am trying to find out if how it prevents being folded over backwards by wind resistance ? this downward force and pivot point cancels it out somehow?

[@jjmetrejhon1743]

You can't watch this, and the main channel, without learning so, so much, and it's so amazing to know we're all learning together. But the thing that makes it perfect for me is the genuine joy you not only have, but also show, when you're sharing all the wonderful things you've learned with us. Thanks so much for helping us all grow smarter every day ❤

[@AwestrikeFearofGods]

5:50 I highly doubt this amount of gunpowder is jumping the gap. It's far more likely that the ejected gunpowder comes from previous shots, and is dislodged ahead of the fired bullet. We already know that the bullet acts as a piston, pushing air in front of it. A simple test would be to clean the barrel, and then check for a near-100% reduction in observed gunpowder. Also, it appears gunpowder is slower than the bullet because: 1) Air/powder gets ejected at a range of speeds from zero to muzzle velocity. The average muzzle velocity of air should be 0.5 of bullet. It's hard to say if the powder velocity would match air, or is biased. 2) Powder has a lower terminal velocity than the bullet, due to its smaller diameter. This decelerates it more before it comes in frame. If you don't observe a reduction in gunpowder after cleaning, I would then suspect that pressurized propellant gasses (carrying particles) are exiting after the bullet, and flowing around and past it. To observe this would require framing closer to the muzzle.

[@michaelf8221]

That first shot of the rolling shutter match is a classic example shown in (numerical+analytical) PDE courses. You effectively showed a string (the match), shaken by a hand (the bullet), while fixed against a wall (the match holder). Your image was a freeze frame of the 1D wave equation with a Neumann boundary condition where the bullet hit the match and a Dirichlet boundary condition where the match is fixed against the holder. Great stuff.

[@al-asadi]

Just wanted to express some gratitude for the second channel content. It's great to see it as a unique addition rather than a duplicate of the main channel video with some extra bits. It feels like a special behind-the-scenes experience, and I'm loving the fresh perspective. Keep up the fantastic work and looking forward to more awesome content!

[@OsamaRana]

regarding 10:18, is the hole in the cardboard big enough for the match to pass through angled like that, or do you think the angling happened as the match scraped the hole? I think the match was caught in the hollow point of the bullet and as it passed the hole, the match grazed the side of the hole, splintered, and the result is what we saw.

[@osmia]

I never thought of that while watching but now that you say it it makes perfect logical sense to my mind

[@buggsy5]

He showed in the video how they broke the stick before inserting it into the muzzle.

[@drmaudio]

22 short and 22LR both use a heeled bullet, so the exposed portion of the projectile is the same diameter as the O.D. of the case (rather then the I.D.). As such, the bullet should provide a reasonable gas seal even before clearing the chamber area. maybe the powder getting there first is unburnt powder from previous shots being forced out by the compressing column of air in front of the projectile in the barrel.

[@EnvirotekCleaningSystems]

This is almost certainly what is happening. Should be easy to test using the info from my previous post.

[@alphazuma]

I absolutely loved you leveling with me (a long time viewer) in the main vid Destin. Brought this farm boy's son to tears honestly. I suppose you an John need to go on a match shooting adventure ten years from now :)

[@dibenp]

0:59 i’m really glad you mentioned rolling shutter. I noticed the frame in the main video, but figured it was a weird shockwave or maybe the harness vibration causing a weird oscillation in the matches.

[@hellhound3713]

I'd love to see you sand down the match so it fits into the hollow point of the bullet and see what happens.

[@Oopswrongvideo]

This is the exact comment I was gonna make!!! Even glue it in place

[@yz250ftony]

Powdered tannerite works better

[@bermchasin]

and jb weld

[@chrisleggatt3240]

Might add unnecessary weight, I bet a match whittled to the right size would easily wedge itself inside the hollow point.

[@mitchellkirzinger8410]

Destin has some of, if not the best educational content on youtube!! I love how your videos are clear and easy to understand while discussing some of the most complex S.T.E.M Topics. Keep it UP!!!!

[@marko5766]

The shot that surprised me was the 1st time you lit a match, when the last 2 in a row of 6 fired. The surprising part was how much the simple little matches deflected the bullet path.

[@mansfieldtime]

I need to make a comment on your gunpowder match theory. So if you watch gun videos with a Slow motion camera you will see nearly every gun, when it is fired a substance always leaves the barrel before the bullet. I have yet to see a slow-mo gun video that didn't have a substance leading the bullet out of the barrel. In some cases it could be clearing oil, gun powder, carbon, or just a gas, but every video I've seen has this. My Theory is regardless of size, gases escape around the bullet and push other gases in the barrel creating a small vacuum for the bullet. This can happen simply because there is always a gap between the bullet and the barrel. Even riffling allows air to pass through. As for the specks of gunpowder, you would need to get a sample, but I think it was carbon residue from the last shot. Because after every shot there is residue left behind.

[@viperpm]

Everyone has a 10/22…..**slowly looks over to my 10/22** 😂

[@Bill_DeBerry]

I was thinking the same thing, but I currently do not have a 10/22. The funny part is, I was looking at buying one like 3 days ago, but didn't go through with the purchase only because my family would get mad at me for buying yet another rifle, lol.

[@readysetnogo]

@@Bill_DeBerry a worthy reason to make your family mad at you haha

[@viperpm]

@@readysetnogo @Bill_DeBerry I’m not saying @readysetnogo is right….but I’m not saying he’s wrong either lol

[@michaelsimpson9779]

Used to have a 10/22.....😔

[@sheldoniusRex]

MFW Marlin mod. 60. Did I fug up, frens?

[@rocket_goose]

Great video! I couldn't help chuckling at the Americanness of "everyone in the world has one of those" 4:44

[@gene8842]

The last shot on the video is a perfect example of probability. The chance of the match doing what it did is exceedingly small, but if the circumstances are just right, sometimes VERY strange things can happen. It demonstrates that improobable is not the same as impossible.

[@CorePathway]

Each of our births is the same. I have 3 children, but have produced the potential for billions and billions…and each would have been different from the next. We are all lottery winners

[@DavidLindes]

Mentioned on the main channel video, too, but I'll just drop it here, too. Something I didn't see in your video, but saw when I did my own phantom shot of a match once upon a time, was the wood boiling as it burned. (Or at least, that's my description of it -- I think basically the little bit of moisture that's still in the wood was boiling? Or maybe some solid was melting and then boiling. Anyway, a clear-ish liquid could be seen to be bubbling as the match burned, before the flame or soot areas quite got to that section. Gotta be fairly high-res to see it, so probably drop the frame rate (and make sure focus is good, obviously, but you do that, so no worries). It's fascinating. Would love to see you explore it, if you want to. :)

[@CapSlaps_]

petition to rename the channel "Even Smarter Every Day"

[@danielellestad8314]

Your channels are my favorites on the internet! I really enjoy the less polished, laid back version you call Smarter Every Day 2. I am a mechanical engineer by trade and share a lot of the same joy you do, figuring out why things happen or work. Keep up the awesome work my friend! Cheers from Ohio!

[@skie6282]

As a novice reloader, powder burn speed and barrel length matter. Believe it or not, the difference between a 16 inch barrel and just a 20 will have 90 something % burned to 99% burned. Or slow powder to fast. Theres a few factors in all, primer too, even the brand can effect it, and powder grain shape also effects how things burn. Id low to see a clear bullet "case" filled with different powders in a clear barrel shot in slo mo

[@putteification]

Good idea. I wonder if a glass case made thick enough would stand the pressure.

[@williamflummer3240]

A good polycrylic could do this depending on the pressures invovled.@@putteification

[@nanaki-seto]

@@putteification you could do a caseless .22 with just the end of the case in a thick acrylic barrel for testing easier than trying to make a clear bullet casing.

[@SoybeanAK]

The inverse of your example also holds. I've seen loads where the difference between a 16" and 20" was literally 24fps! Unfortunately there's no way to contain 60,000 CUP in a material with little enough light distortion to let a Phantom capture the action. But there's been enough work done in this field by trial and error and lots of note-comparing that we've pretty well figured out how powder columns and load compression and effective* burn rate and a bunch of other factors affect accuracy and velocity. Still hasn't stopped people from pushing old myths! The intermediary physics effects though are a subject of idle curiosity, and will probably remain the stuff of conjecture until quantum computing or divine intervention enlightens us!

[@harriel001]

Powder burn depends a lot on how long it's contained and pressurized too. The primer is almost never enough to ignite the entire powder load in a round, it just ignites a few bits of powder directly next to it and then that ignited powder propagates the ignition through the entire load. While that happens quickly, the expanding gases in the chamber begin pushing the bullet and powder out of the casing and down the barrel before the full load of powder will ignite. If the pressure releases too soon you'll end up with unspent powder escaping the barrel. This is why short barreled firearms pretty much always have unspent powder leaving the barrel and thus are usually used with smaller powder loads and faster burning types of powder, while longer barrels are used with larger loads and can support slower burning powders. It's also why the same round will perform differently in different length barrels, more time in the barrel gives the powder more opportunity to ignite and turn to gas as well as more time to transfer energy from that expanding gas to the bullet. In theory you'd want the barrel to be exactly long enough for the powder to completely ignite and transform to gas and for that gas to expand until it equals the force of friction working against the bullet in the barrel. But in reality the diminishing returns on barrel length make using theoretically 'perfect' barrel lengths impractical, so you'll always see some amount of unspent powder being ejected with the projectile. :)

[@Astrolab.insights]

The genuine laughter brings me so much happiness, seeing and hearing how excited you were about this was absolutely beautiful

[@LynxSnowCat]

I love that there are _accurate_ human edited captions/subtitles (less deciphering what the bot mishears homophones and portmanteaus as), but they're desynced with the video. (at the time of this comment)

[@TheFaark]

jup, maybe like 30sec out of sync at the end of the video

[@jamespittsfordiii7632]

My thought about the gases traveling toward the trailing end of the bullet is that the negative air space behind the bullet might have influenced the travel of the gases

[@kurtspann442]

Hey Destin i was wondering how the match went through the cardboard hole sideways. I was wondering if the match caught the cardboard and the bullet pushed it through. Wish the camera picked it all up. Love the video. Keep it up.

[@bansheeman213]

It can go through the cardboard because of speed. Same way a small bullet can get through a steel plate. When thinking of guns, speed defeats armor. One bulletproof vest can stop a 2,000-grain shotgun slug traveling 1,200fps but a little 55-grain bullet traveling 3,000fps will go through. No different than how a tornado can drive straw into a tree.

[@drew79s]

That's super cool :) Loved the sine wave rolling shutter. For the second one, I suspect there's a third explanation, which is that you're forming something a little like an oblique shock there... There's a lot of air moving around that interaction really quickly... It also explains the speed of reversion, becuase the source would go away on contact and then form and friction drag would pick up all the air with the flow that it's towing along with it. In the third, the case won't go all the way to the rifling, there'll be a small gap between the projectile and the leade, if you don't have a gap you'll blow up the gun, because of the pressure buildup during the engraving process. You will always see a little powder and some combustion gasses escaping past the projectile, they're never a perfect obturator, but absolutely, in the case you're describing you can expect a huge amount of flow around the projectile, .22 short won't be achieving very high pressures at all before the projectile leaves the case mouth, then it's got an enormous jump relative to a normal catridge configuration, so the combustion process would slow right down during the early phases of firing, which would both allow a lot more unburnt powder to bypass the projectile while it hasn't engaged the rifling, and also give it a much more gentle push than you would normally expect. Effectively the huge jump is resulting in a massively delayed pressure profile. On the final one, I've looked after a lot of students and junior Engineers, and the biggest problem I see in Universities is that they tend to teach absolutes that aren't true... Frequently it's meaningless to write a free body diagram for something because you try and represent a force on it for something which results in a force, rather than being a product of a force... The way I always explain it is that you have four typical scenarios; applied force, applied energy, applied acceleration and applied displacement. If you try and model and applied energy or an applied displacement as an applied force you'll get nonsensical answers. Your example is analagous to a car crash... If you put something small in a car and affix it to a piece of the survival cell you can think of it as suffering an applied acceleration, but the important part is that it only suffers that at the point of contact... If you have a long stick of something really energy absorbing and deformable behind it, it'll suffer the applied acceleration only at the point of contact, everything else will see a much lower acceleration... Given you're firing .22 short and you're getting a delayed pressure profile and a dirty burn and probably only achieving 200m/sec you're probably only seeing half or less of the typical 10000g you'd expect as a gunfire shock load, and only over 100mm or so before the powder is all burnt, which is about right for a .22.

[@DCDLaserCNC]

The splinter of the match stuck in the hollow point and carrying the match along was incredible!

[@byzmack1334]

You should put the cardboard back in front and fire 22 long to see if there is powder getting out and dirtying the cardboard.

[@enigma1138]

Second this suggestion. Also clean the barrel really well before the shot as suggested above.

[@DanielEleveld]

Master gunsmith here! I think your second strange thing (gases moving rearward) are actually gasses/debris moving toward the camera due to the rotation of the bullet. Your third item could also be a known issue called “foregassing” that tends to happen near the end of the lifespan of a barrel’s rifling. At all times the gas is trying to escape around and in front of the bullet, and once the rifling is worn enough it starts to do that, blowing unburned powder ahead through the muzzle. On your last item you are spot on! I’ll only add that you don’t need foregassing to do that; unless you recently fired the rifle, the barrel will be full of “cold” air that will compress as the bullet pushes into it, creating a bit of a cushion. This is what causes that “first round pop” with suppressors.

[@HyperactiveSloth14]

That explanation on the debris moving toward the camera is very logical. Good job on thinking in three dimensions

[@wintersummers3085]

What was used as a backstop for the bullets? I know it doesn't take a much to stop .22 short, but what did you find worked consistently round after round?

[@royreynolds108]

It looks like a bucket of sand.

[@sheldoniusRex]

>everyone has a 10/22 >MFW Marlin mod. 60 Did I fug up, frens?

[@jmacd8817]

Freaking awesome! On a completely unrelated point, I got a chuckle out of seeing Destin codeswitching.

[@paulweber1740]

Yeah. The best example is the tractor pull video from a while ago. I think he even calls himself out on it. We all do it if we have different environs we grew up with or ran and run with.

[@RealJimSkinner]

1:16 Cessna 172 on Episode 172, Nice!

[@khairell]

The match being pushed by the bullet is such a crazy optical illusion. It almost looks like the bullet is pushing the match sideways, but we know there’s no way the match would rotate and stay on the same plane as the bullet. Such a neat shot!

[@pbourd]

Need a Schlieren rig to confirm, but I believe there’s a slight vacuum trailing the bullet, that sucks the puff of match tip debris to the right side ( race car backdrafts) 😊

[@mikeduhon9697]

That was awesome! A bullet carrying a match while lightning a match is a first for me lol!

[@brianhanks8207]

On the puff of gas going the "wrong" direction: Don't forget the contribution of the "slipstream" around the slug. It looked to me (on my phone, unfortunately) like some of it tried to slip in behind the slug before the gasses come along and push the cloud the other way. Very fun video and observations!

[@billbryce2538]

I had kind of the same thought, that maybe the shock wave from the bullet had piled up against the match and rebounded, carrying the gases with it.

[@TrinitronX]

Really hilarious and fascinating! It looks like the wood grain of the match is parallel to the matchstick's length, so it's like a bundle of straws in that direction and is much stronger. I think that factor is one reason it doesn't shatter completely, and when combined with the gases initially propelling the matchstick until the bullet catches up with it, the relative velocity difference is lower and thus less force (F=m*a) is seen by the matchstick. However, we still do see it has splintered a bit, (possibly from impact force or drag), lodging one bundle of splinter fibers into the hollow point. The matchstick isn't spinning, but the bullet amazingly spins around that splinter like a top perfectly carrying it in front like a hilarious hood ornament.

[@rueben225]

Have absolutely nothing to contribute to such awesomeness. Excellent work. These are such genuine channels.

[@PaulBenedict1]

Destin, don’t forget the unburned powder could be from the previous shot remaining in the bore of the barrel. The unburned powder is then forced out on the next shot.

[@wunderstrudel]

You sound surprised that a lot of people has subscribed to this channel. It is funny because i love the main channel but i find this one way more interesting! I want all the nerdy details and i gladly watch 2 hours to get them!! Thanks for all the work you put into the channels! ❤

[@AlxBrb]

10:21 You guys basically successfully executed an unplanned docking manouver in an high-density atmospheric enviroment between a match and a bullet. At the first try. Impressive. XD

[@bd95382]

Love this channel and this video. Just getting speculative thoughts about the weirdness that happens around us is great!

[@hawks1282]

One of my favorite Smarter Every Day moments was seeing the supersonic gun powder in your "Bullet Schlieren" episode. My brother used to work in forensics and spent a lot of time looking at primer residue under a scanning electron microscope.

[@scottchenoweth4937]

Destin, the black residue on your cardboard baffle is going to be mostly vaporized lead. Rimfire .22 projectiles (22LR and shorter) are not jacketed. The copper colored projectiles you have are copper washed, not plated and not jacketed. The soft lead vaporizes a little bit from traveling down the bore. After exiting the muzzle the lead cools rapidly and becomes a solid again, depositing on whatever is close. If you have friends who own suppressors (silencers) they can vouch for the fact that the amount of lead buildup in a rimfire suppressor is staggeringly huge. Most rimfire suppressors are designed to be disassembled by the user to clean out the caked-on lead deposits regularly. Since the vaporized lead is molten right at the muzzle of a 22, it really gunks-up suppressors and muzzle devices very quickly.

[@erickoegler4848]

I absolutely love all your videos! They're really fun to watch and educate me. Would it be possible that some of those fragments we see floating by are very fine particles of lead from the bullet being shaved off by the barrel rifling?

[@lawrymccarthy3292]

Gas leaking past the bullet when shooting .22 shorts in a .22 long rifle chamber is a very well-known phenomenon. In fact some gunsmiths and gun experts warn people not to shoot a lot of shorts in a long rifle chambered rifle. The high-speed gas leak going through the narrow space has so much heat and speed that it eventually erodes that part of the chamber. Some experts believe this phenomenon is just an urban myth, but I was confronted with it physically. As an undergraduate I did gun smithing work and I repaired a .22 LR owned by an old gentleman who had only used .22 shorts for a long time. The pit in the chamber was >2mm deep as I recall. I cut off the damaged chamber and rechambered the barrel. I might still have the piece I removed if I can find it. I kept it to show doubting Thomas's.

[@scottcampbell96]

When you started laughing about the bullet carrying a match, I though you going to share footage of lighting the wall on fire because the flying match caught fire and continued on.

[@dunkie976]

Love that reaction........I'm in pieces with laughter here......Thank you

[@cwtoyota]

Matches and Air Rifles... When we were kids, my brother and I would shoot matches at hard targets like rocks, bricks and metal with a single shot, break-action air rifle. The matches explode with a loud bang when you hit a hard surface. You don't need to load a pellet, the old Diamond brand matches were a good fit in a .177 bore. The air rifle can also help you answer some of these questions about gasses, powder, etc. Especially if you put a camera next to the muzzle.

[@bearbarre6435]

I have two theories. 1) The powder hitting the match: .22 rounds use powder that burns VERY dirty. I think with the short brass, a little of the powder from the round MAY get around the bullet, but most of what makes it downrange with the bullet is grime and unburnt powder that built up in the barrel from previous shots. 2) The bullet seals pretty tight in the barrel (or else the rifling wouldn't work as well as it does). The matchsticks are pretty light. Now, what happens if you take a tube and plug one end of it, then push the plug down the tube? Air pressure. I think that, more than the blow by of the powder around the bullet, pushes the matchstick. The bullet, being very fast, catches up to the matchstick, but not so fast as to shatter the stick with the impact. Sort of catches up to it and then pushes it. As a kid, I used to take strike anywhere matches and put them down the barrel of my Red Rider BB gun (they only fit up to the head of the match, but that's okay) and shoot them at things (rocks, brick walls and, yes, even other matches held in a clothes pin with the head sticking up). A few times I was able to strike one or both matches (when shooting at matches, of course), but my favorite was brick walls. The match head explodes with a loud bang, sometimes even leaving a tiny crater in a cinder block. I had been doing this for a couple of years before my Dear Ol' Dad noticed the pock marks in a secluded corner the wall around our back yard. At first he was mad and I got yelled at, (there were a LOT of craters), but the next day he was a little late getting home from work. He had stopped and bought another BB gun, a ton of BBs, several boxes of matches and four cinder blocks. BEST DAD EVER!!! A few months later I discovered that shotgun primers (we had plenty, because we loved to hunt dove and reload our own shells) and the slingshots they call wrist rockets are another explosive combo.. I let Dear Ol' Dad know about that the day I came up with that one after only a few shots at the blocks. He wasn't as pleased at that one because of the shrapnel, but he did buy me one tray of primers and a face shield just to get it out of my system. He supervised me with the primers and made sure I knew that there would be no more of that. He was a great Dad, but he wasn't stupid. Those primers were dangerous!

[@DylanDoesStuffAndThings]

It's crazy how meaningful these little observations really are and how well you are able to bring attention to them. I love every one of your videos and am so inspired. Thank you for everything, sincerely

[@andedabtau8335]

Concerning the gases going backwards at around 4:00: I once saw a video, unfortunately I don't remember which one in detail, about why impact craters (on the moon, other plantes etc.) are always round. The gases going in all directions here remembered me of the effects shown there, where dust was also blown all directions, even when the impact occurred at a shallow angle. The impact acts more like a detonation in itself, because the very high speed.

[@paulmcclay8697]

Now I feel kind of dumb for never wondering why craters are round.

[@andedabtau8335]

@@paulmcclay8697 Hahaha, I can relate to that. One of those things where you go: Why did I never question that! In case you are interested, there are several videos about the topic on youtube.

[@thevoiceofcake]

2:44 That would be fun to see with a Schlieren imaging setup. It would be neat to see the wake of the bullet and how it interacts with the gases from the match.

[@mrwill-ln2hx]

Hey Destin, love your videos, and I love the fact that obviously you're a highly educated mechanical engineer and still your eyes light up like a kid when you uncover live physics.... I spent a lot of time in Redstone in the military as a "mechanical" guy learning and working on that German guys stuff that I still can't talk about and I love all the stuff you do....... since you only did the bullet pushing the match experiment once, and there's no record of that ever having been done before, you can only conclude that it does that 100% of the time...... personally, I would have ended up finishing up the whole box of bullets repeating it.... maybe even supergluing the match into the hollow point....... you really are making people smarter every day

[@konstantinosv.9858]

What about to light the cigarette that way to a person whom you hate to much saying "sorry man I don't have the lighter with me".

[@j.pocket]

I appreciate that you took the time to do this follow up video for people like us.

[@saltysteel3996]

The barrel has a chamber and a bore. Chamber is where the cartridge sits, and the bore is what the bullet travels through. When the bolt is all the way forward and locked into the barrel that is called "in battery", and when it is not it is called "out of battery". When in battery the distance from the bolt face to the end of the chamber that does not allow the cartridge to go any further into the barrel is called "head spacing". Using a cartridge that is shorter than the chamber is basically the same thing as having incorrect head spacing, which can cause catastrophic failures resulting in injury or death. Thankfully 22 is weak enough to not cause a pressure spike that could explode the steel barrel. And some 22 firearms are designed to use the shorter cartridges. But always check to make sure just to be safe. There's plenty of videos showing what incorrect head spacing can do, or what using the wrong cartridge can do. Also, the rifling has 2 parts called lands and grooves. The lands are the ridges and the grooves are the spaces between those ridges.

[@davidtorre2593]

Regarding the powder in the frame, please consider this. I have observed that smokeless powder burns faster in higher pressures The 22 short bullet leaves the casing and JUMPS to the rifling. This causes a momentary loss of the pressure needed for a more complete powder burn. Thus, unburned powder leaves the barrel. Pure SWAG from a few years reloading 30-06 and 357

[@thewatchhawk]

Couple things. Not all of the powder is burned some is expelled after the bullet with the gases, some remains in the barrel. 22 cal is well known for this, some people attribute this to the straight wall of the casting, since the powder is ignited by the rim, the gasses at the bottom push the bullet and the powder near the top out before it can ignite. This is one reason high power rifles brass have larger casings that are necked down to the bullet. The larger case allows for more surface area for the powder get ignited before being pushed out with the gas. Also the bullet touches the rilfling lands not the groves. The bullet pushes all the unburnt and burnt powder left from the previous shot out of the barrel ahead of it. This is some of the debris you see before the bullet. (To remove this factor I would use a breach loading rifle and clean the barrel after each shot.) Nice video. PS make sure you clean up the debris left over when done shooting in doors. A local indoor range had an issue where the unburnt residue on the floor between the shoot station and the backstop caught fire.

[@AndrewGrosvenor-xs1gg]

St Joseph Homeschoolers here: my son asked right away: "if the match was pushed through the cardboard with the hole in it?" (I love as a homeschooling dad that we can watch these videos together with HUGE smiles on our faces;o) We assume not, as it looked like in this video the cardboard (which was used to protect from the muzzle blast) was removed... and maybe more importantly, are you gonna "do it again!" ?

[@AshidoAsh]

Hi Destin, i think you have uploaded the wrong subtitles for this video. Love your insites, thank you for the video.

[@That_Freedom_Guy]

I respect your love of life and how you show how amazing the world is. Its pretty contagious! Thanks 👍🏻

[@BiGBooV1]

You can see the bullet likely burned/splintered the back of the match as it pinched against the sidewall of the barrel and then likely once escaping the barrel, the bullet slowly started gaining on the match due to the air resistance difference and the rifling started to make the hollowpoint dig into the match. Really cool shot!

[@rust86]

Love this experimentation for a format!!

[@EpicATrain]

What camera are you using for the narration part?

[@jastrapper190]

That is really just some amazing video footage… if you were to tell me that was even possible to capture on film and watch… a bullet hitting a match with another match being pushed… it’s just incredible.

[@Whitewingdevil]

You see those little explosions sometimes with ballistics gel videos when a bullet passes from one block to the next, my best explanation is the sheer force detonating the surface as the bullet impacts.

[@the.original.throwback]

Fool Around and Find Out is really fun sometimes. Amazing experiment and video. More, please.

[@RelicDog]

Sure reminds me of the photo of the weasel on the back of the flying woodpecker. Amazing! Thanks for what you do!

[@TheTrudgingTech]

I've always been told that no primer really ever ignites all of the powder. Center fire cartridges will get more, but even those have some that doesn't burn. Think about how exact you would need to be in order to get the PERFECT burn in your barrel...

[@seth1422]

If you fire a round with only a charge and wadding, no bullet, most of the gunpowder while leave the barrel uncombusted (it doesn’t matter if you use black or smokeless powder). The reason is for this is that the powder next to the primer detonates and throws the rest of the powder out. So this powder does not need to be “jumping the gap” in the chamber before the rifling starts. It can fly out the barrel uncombusted behind the bullet. The fact the short-round bullet faces less resistance before it engages with the rifling means that charge experiences less compressive pressure and might not combust as completely as intended.

[@boltonky]

The video with the match being pushed by the bullet was one of the coolest things i have seen in awhile :) The invention of video has definitely caught some strange things that boggle the mind especially when you consider there is science around things we don't understand yet or created

[@MrKfadrat]

there is also 3rd mechanical reason for that dust going backwards. its also a reason why match cracks and not just leves bullet shaped perfect hole in it. there are strains already

[@weevilinabox]

I'll offer a fourth. If, as a pedestrian, you've ever been passed closely by vehicle travelling at a fair speed, you are likely to have felt a push of air from the "bow wave", followed by a pull as the tail end passes you. I don't recall whether the pull is only towards the vehicle, or whether there's some movement of air opposite to the motion of the vehicle, but I do remember that the effect is much more pronounced with closer passes, higher speeds and larger vehicles (but not so large that there's a significant delay between the front and rear passing me). One big difference is that a bullet is pushed by high pressure from behind, though at some point that must change to it having a high pressure wave ahead with a low pressure behind. Does this happen almost immediately after it leaves the barrel, or is there a residual pressure on the rear for some distance? If there were, I suspect that the stripper plate would greatly reduce it. I've no idea how this might scale to the sizes and speeds Destin is investigating here.

[@davyp2993]

The bullet carrying the match, reminds me of the weasel on the back of the woodpecker photograph.! Keep up the good work.

[@MopWhoSmells]

4:00 I don't think the gas is going backwards, towards the gun, it's gas going outward. You can see gas going forward, away from the gun, at the same time.

[@Sirtigereg]

That reminds me of the bullets from who framed Roger rabbit, bullet carrying a match striking a match

[@johnwallroff5918]

I think the 2nd thing you talk about, the bullet coming from right to left then a puff of gas going left to right is from the bullet pushing air in front of it, that pushed air hits the match and bounces back along with some debris from the match. Since the bullet is traveling below supersonic speed I think it would be able to actually be pushing air ahead of it as if flies. The ammo you're using is simply "22 Short" Rimfire, The 3 main 22 rimfire cartridges are "22 Short" "22 Long" and "22 Long Rifle". Look up the history of these for an in depth explanation. There is no "Rifle" in the name of 22 Short or 22 Long, in fact, Rifle was used in the name of 22 Long Rifle (22LR) to differentiate it by name from 22 Long. The gun powder you see going well ahead of the bullet is from the cartridge gasses expanding, starting behind the bullet, but moving PAST the bullet while the bullet is still in the chamber and lead (l - ee - d) area of the chamber, that get around the bullet before the bullet has a chance to engage the actual rifled part of the barrel. There's a lot of dynamics that go on with the timing of things being sealed when a cartridge goes off in a chamber, the brass expands and seals the chamber going back (why we can get sooty or dirty fired cases or maybe just the neck area of a bottle neck case and the bullet fully engaging the barrel and sealing what's going on behind it. Lastly, it was pretty irresponsible of you to put a blockage in the barrel and then fire the gun when you put the match stick in the barrel and still fired the gun.

[@corivian]

What a great video, i understand these things didn’t make the main channel but man are they interesting!

[@Outbackarms]

Hey destin really good video like usual, I came to a similar conclusion in regards to how the bullet didnt shatter the match (which i was not expecting at all!🤣) however my theory differs slighty. See when hunting in the mud instead of putting tape on the end of my barrel i will sometimes put a foam ear plug. Now when i go to shoot, a few times I have forgotton to remove the ear plug and after firing have checked worried there is residue of ear plug in the end of my barrel (any obstruction is bad from what i have read) that may affect accuracy. Anyway there is always never any residue, so i have come to the conclusion that the bullet when it is engaged in the rifling in the barrel forms a plug/piston and the air is compressed in front of the bullet causing the ear plug to 'shoot' out of the barrel before the bullet hits it. I wonder if This is whats happening with the match and the bullet is acting like a super compressed air cannon that you made. Also would love to see you do a slow mo of what happens with tape on the front of a barrel when fired (its an old hunting trick to stop mud) my hypothesis is that it will act like the tape on the front of your air cannon (except there is more air in from of the projectile blowing the tape off earlier) cheers.

[@yukonbikerguy]

Hey Destin, one thing that occurred to me about the 'micro blow back' that you may not have considered... The bullet flying through the air would have a small zone of low pressure directly behind the bullet, and perhaps this is what is momentarily pulling that little puff towards the back of the bullet as it passes over.

[@logannewman4532]

I love that feeling of trying to compose myself while preparing to show somebody something hilarious. I could hear the strain.

[@mradford10]

As an Australian I have very limited knowledge about guns, ammunition, brands or anything. I appreciate you taking us through the detail so I can work this out. It’s not that we don’t have guns, just that if you’re not in a rural area, professional gun club, Police or Australian Defense Force, nobody is carrying a gun (broadly speaking - I’m sure there’s exceptions). Gun culture seems like a different world.

[@redlion6505]

Watched both videos. The "Shut up" reaction with the hearing protection was by far the best part of the whole thing. Height of the personality sine wave for sure.

[@th30519]

Another alternative hypothesis to the powder escaping around the bullet is that as the bullet travels from left to right, a small vacuum is left where the bullet used to be, pulling the powder from left to right, ever so slightly. When the vacuum fills from right to left, the air catches up and pushes the powder again from right to left. I'm not sure if this is the same as the "pressure wave" discussed in a comment below, but it could be. Also under debate is the source of the powder... some think it came from the barrel as residue from the shot itself, but it seems to me that it is created at the tip of the match where the sulfur tip breaks and "match tip dust" is suddenly surrounding the are of the tip where the cracks have formed.

[@williamwilliams7706]

I think that there is more testing needed to determine if the powder either burnt or not burnt is getting around the lead in the chamber or just blasting past the bullet when it leaves the barrel. Great super interesting work as usual.