Electric bullets

[Mr-Eckted]

I did a search, and didn't see any threads about this yet, so here you go:
http://www.shockrounds.com/shock/p2.html
Electric bullets. They use a piezoelectric effect, but you can read more at the link.

[maxke]

I think it's an interesting subject, except for the fact that the bullets would be available primarily for law enforcement and still would give some impact on the subject. I don't think it would be funny if you shot some guy in the eye just for fun with it. ;-)

The bullet is designed to transfer as much as possible kinetic energy into electrical energy if I'm correct, so not all kinetic energy will be transferred.
A system with 0% loss of energy doesn't hasn't been invented yet.


Excuse me for the non-on-topic related information stated below :
{
On national geographic there was a guy who had designed a laser to operate with green light. Green light being the most visible for the human eye, and most importantly the beam was fequency modulated so that for any human being, it would cause a stun effect.

At certain frequencies of light the human brain starts to resonate.
That is the same reason that some video games gets you sick.

This same principle is used with the laser system i discribed above to incapcitate and to not cause damage to a person.
(wouldn't this system be more suitable for incapacitating is the question I am asking myself)
}


Anyways , thanks for the interesting read! But I have some questions , could such a bullet be possibly produced in your backjard ? (As is possible with casting lead bullets given resources and casting-tools) Or is it mass-production only ?

[Saul]

Guess you could make them "in your backyard," only prob may be to get a battery with enough power (or maybe not, I'm not too good with batteries...)
If you know how to make an Impact Detonator small enough, you can do these things.
I think.

Or just shoot them with batteries :D.

[blacktalon]

What's the matter with standard rubber bullets? That guy probably deserved it so I don't have a problem with "all those horrible bruises."

Also, there is no reaction in the real world with 0% losses. That is for the theoretical world only.

[Jacks Complete]

Shooting someone with a PP3 (9 volt) would really hurt them, but the electric would be sod all to do with it!

I would guess that the inventor is a pacifist! Anyway, the way the piezoelectric effect works is by distorting the crystal lattice in a material that exibits the piezoelectric effect. Basically, no, you can't really make them at home. However, you get piezos in lots of cigarette and oven lighters these days, good for about 10,000 shots of varying voltages, up to about 75kV! You could certainly shove a few down a shotgun and see what happens, though testing could be very tricky!

I would think you would need a little set of prongs on the front, to cut into the flesh, and then stop on some sort of guard, and a bit of peizo, and then a weight on the back, to give the compression and the shock. Hey Presto! You can now shoot the thing through anyone, same as a bullet! :(

I have noticed that pacifists are the meanest, most violent people... Looking at the site, it seems like the round was designed to kill normally, but with a knock-down shock, and they are just trying to find a market for it in the post-9-11 age!

EDIT:
Just watched the video demo. I am so not convinced by that! They state in the FAQ that the shock bullet could provide as much as 175 Joules of electric! No chance! That is most of the power of the bullet. These things are not going to be non- or less-lethal at all.

The video is very noddy, firing a wired up crossbow bolt. You can see they are doing the shot for the fifth time from the four holes in the target, they didn't bother with a tripod... Heck, NBK2000's scam with the glowing inserts was a hundred times better put together than this! According to the scope, the video was shot in September 2002, despite the copyright. The scope also tells us that the sampling rate was 25KS/s and the X axis is 2 ms/div. Even with the standard divide by 10 on the scope probe, they didn't get "thousands of volts" and that graph shows it! The reading is more like 50 volts, at the axis interval shown (10 V per division!) over a time interval of a fraction of a second.

Generally, you are going to jump when a piezo zaps you, but no more, unless it is fired like a bullet!

Sadly, you will have to watch the video for yourselves, as I couldn't get anything to snapshot it for me :(

[Tuatara]

Looks like a scam to con cash out of gullible investors to me.

1. Any shock is going to be confined to the impact area, so any sensation is going to be totally swamped by the impact force.

2. The force required to generate the kind of energy / voltage needed for an effective shock is going to be high, hence the shock-round is still going to bruise and injure the target.

3. 25kv is easily achieved on a piezo, but only if its not connected to anything!

4. The kinetic to electrical conversion efficiency is never going to be that good, so where does the excess KE end up? In the target of course.


Its got to be bogus!