Astonishing Facts....

Astonishing Facts....

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Discussion

fomb

1,402 posts

212 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Mr2Mike said:
1) It's nowhere near 40%, much lower.
2) The holes are too small to flow any appreciable amount of air, even though there are many of them.
Also, fluid dynamics would dictate that those holes would become effectively blocked by turbulence when in anything more than a light breeze

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

220 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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GroundEffect said:
Anything with a heavier atom than Iron is the same...so many parts of our bodies are the same too.
I know - I was just trying to put a romantic/poetic twist on it wink

"You know that the copper in the Plastocyanin family of copper-binding proteins comes from a star going supernova" just doesn't have the same ring to it (excuse the pun) biggrin

Edited by Moonhawk on Thursday 14th June 11:06

carguy45

221 posts

165 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
Russian cosmonauts used to pack a shotgun in case they landed in Siberia and had to fend off bears.

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

254 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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carguy45 said:
Russian cosmonauts used to pack a shotgun in case they landed in Siberia and had to fend off bears.
Good Day Bad Day.

Successful journey into space and safe return to Earth. Bit bumpy, but hey. Oh, and got my face bitten off by a bear.

Greg_D

6,542 posts

247 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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carguy45 said:
Russian cosmonauts used to pack a shotgun in case they landed in Siberia and had to fend off bears.
i'm not doubting you, but surely a large calibre handgun would be a better combination of space/weight/stopping power/simplicity and amount of ammo (6 shooter .45 ftw...)

eybic

9,212 posts

175 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Greg_D said:
carguy45 said:
Russian cosmonauts used to pack a shotgun in case they landed in Siberia and had to fend off bears.
i'm not doubting you, but surely a large calibre handgun would be a better combination of space/weight/stopping power/simplicity and amount of ammo (6 shooter .45 ftw...)
It was indeed a pistol



captain_cynic

12,060 posts

96 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Greg_D said:
i'm not doubting you, but surely a large calibre handgun would be a better combination of space/weight/stopping power/simplicity and amount of ammo (6 shooter .45 ftw...)
Shotgun does not weigh much more and requires far less finesse.

eybic said:
It was indeed a pistol
Kind of, it used two smoothbore barrels loaded with 28 gauge shot and one rifled barrel underneath with a rifle calibre round. So it was really a sawn off shotgun and rifle.

Edited by captain_cynic on Thursday 14th June 13:10

Greg_D

6,542 posts

247 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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captain_cynic said:
Greg_D said:
i'm not doubting you, but surely a large calibre handgun would be a better combination of space/weight/stopping power/simplicity and amount of ammo (6 shooter .45 ftw...)
Shotgun does not weigh much more and requires far less finesse.
they really do weigh a lot more, i'm a reasonably experienced shot and know the relative weights of most types of firearm. A pump action shotgun with 6 cartridges loaded will weigh probably treble a similarly equipped pistol, and will take up probably 5x the space. if an astronaut can't be trained to fire a pistol vaguely straight into the centre of mass of a bear, they probably shouldn't even be on the mission....

captain_cynic

12,060 posts

96 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Greg_D said:
they really do weigh a lot more, i'm a reasonably experienced shot and know the relative weights of most types of firearm. A pump action shotgun with 6 cartridges loaded will weigh probably treble a similarly equipped pistol, and will take up probably 5x the space. if an astronaut can't be trained to fire a pistol vaguely straight into the centre of mass of a bear, they probably shouldn't even be on the mission....
Erm... the pistol with two shotgun shells linked to above is 2.4 KG with stock, a .50 desert eagle is 1.8 KG. Not really going to make much of a difference.

I'm calling bks on you being an actual shooter if you think a small shotgun is 5 times as big as a large calibre pistol. A sawn off pump action will easily be under 3KG and maybe occupy twice the space, less if it has a folding stock... However a combination gun was made. It was a breech loader because if you cant neutralise the bear with one or two shots, you were bear food.

Also, pilots were not chosen for their marksmanship and you can put a .45 round into a bear and it will keep charging unless you hit something vital. The time saved by not having to aim accurately was the difference between life and death. Bears are big creatures.

tertius

6,858 posts

231 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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captain_cynic said:
Greg_D said:
they really do weigh a lot more, i'm a reasonably experienced shot and know the relative weights of most types of firearm. A pump action shotgun with 6 cartridges loaded will weigh probably treble a similarly equipped pistol, and will take up probably 5x the space. if an astronaut can't be trained to fire a pistol vaguely straight into the centre of mass of a bear, they probably shouldn't even be on the mission....
Erm... the pistol with two shotgun shells linked to above is 2.4 KG with stock, a .50 desert eagle is 1.8 KG. Not really going to make much of a difference.

I'm calling bks on you being an actual shooter if you think a small shotgun is 5 times as big as a large calibre pistol. A sawn off pump action will easily be under 3KG and maybe occupy twice the space, less if it has a folding stock... However a combination gun was made. It was a breech loader because if you cant neutralise the bear with one or two shots, you were bear food.

Also, pilots were not chosen for their marksmanship and you can put a .45 round into a bear and it will keep charging unless you hit something vital. The time saved by not having to aim accurately was the difference between life and death. Bears are big creatures.
To be fair I think GregD was comenting on the initial claim that they took a “shotgun” (and not a small barrelled pistol configuration drilling) as a standard shotgun is undoubtedly a lot larger than a pistol.; and the ammunition much bulkier.

I personally would be rather doubtful of the effectiveness of any shotgun round against a bear, let alone the (rather small) 28 bore in the TP-82.

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

245 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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captain_cynic said:
The time saved by not having to aim accurately was the difference between life and death. Bears are big creatures.
Has any cosmonaut ever been required to off a bear in anger?

Greg_D

6,542 posts

247 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
captain_cynic said:
Erm... the pistol with two shotgun shells linked to above is 2.4 KG with stock, a .50 desert eagle is 1.8 KG. Not really going to make much of a difference.

I'm calling bks on you being an actual shooter if you think a small shotgun is 5 times as big as a large calibre pistol. A sawn off pump action will easily be under 3KG and maybe occupy twice the space, less if it has a folding stock... However a combination gun was made. It was a breech loader because if you cant neutralise the bear with one or two shots, you were bear food.

Also, pilots were not chosen for their marksmanship and you can put a .45 round into a bear and it will keep charging unless you hit something vital. The time saved by not having to aim accurately was the difference between life and death. Bears are big creatures.
i currently have an SGC and a firearms license, own 2 shotguns and 2 rifles. i frankly don't give two hoots what you think...

a 28 gauge shotgun shell is little more than a child's toy, they're no thicker than your little finger - they're certainly not going to stop a charging bear.

the .45acp 1911 (would not be chosen by the russians because it is an american gun ,but they would almost certainly have something similar in their armoury) is a little over 1kg empty. if they provided hollowpoint or polymer tipped ammo, it'd certainly give a bear a lot more to think about than a 28ga shell..... and you have 7 times to get it right before slotting in another clip.

Timmy45

12,915 posts

199 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
Greg_D said:
captain_cynic said:
Erm... the pistol with two shotgun shells linked to above is 2.4 KG with stock, a .50 desert eagle is 1.8 KG. Not really going to make much of a difference.

I'm calling bks on you being an actual shooter if you think a small shotgun is 5 times as big as a large calibre pistol. A sawn off pump action will easily be under 3KG and maybe occupy twice the space, less if it has a folding stock... However a combination gun was made. It was a breech loader because if you cant neutralise the bear with one or two shots, you were bear food.

Also, pilots were not chosen for their marksmanship and you can put a .45 round into a bear and it will keep charging unless you hit something vital. The time saved by not having to aim accurately was the difference between life and death. Bears are big creatures.
i currently have an SGC and a firearms license, own 2 shotguns and 2 rifles. i frankly don't give two hoots what you think...

a 28 gauge shotgun shell is little more than a child's toy, they're no thicker than your little finger - they're certainly not going to stop a charging bear.

the .45acp 1911 (would not be chosen by the russians because it is an american gun ,but they would almost certainly have something similar in their armoury) is a little over 1kg empty. if they provided hollowpoint or polymer tipped ammo, it'd certainly give a bear a lot more to think about than a 28ga shell..... and you have 7 times to get it right before slotting in another clip.
  • / carefully opens PnP door */
yikes

  • / closes door hoping the two psychopathic nutters having a shouting match about what guns kill bears haven't noticed */

Wildcat45

8,076 posts

190 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Only on PH can you randomly dip into a topic and read a debate about Russian Cosmanauts killing bears (or not)

Brilliant! I've got a topic to talk to my pal about next time we go for a beer.

Did NASA Astronauts in the Apollo missions carry any kit in the event of them not being recovered on time? Fishing lines perhaps?

Its a genuine question.

Mr Gearchange

5,892 posts

207 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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There are more possible combinations to a Rubiks cube than light travels inches in a century.

Rawwr

22,722 posts

235 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
There are 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 different possible permutations for a a shuffled deck of cards (52!). To shuffle every possible permutation, assuming that you can shuffle a different permutation every second...

Start by picking your favorite spot on the equator. You're going to walk around the world along the equator, but take a very leisurely pace of one step every billion years. The equatorial circumference of the Earth is 40,075,017 meters. Make sure to pack a deck of playing cards, so you can get in a few trillion hands of solitaire between steps.

After you complete your round the world trip, remove one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean. Now do the same thing again: walk around the world at one billion years per step, removing one drop of water from the Pacific Ocean each time you circle the globe. The Pacific Ocean contains 707.6 million cubic kilometers of water. Continue until the ocean is empty. When it is, take one sheet of paper and place it flat on the ground. Now, fill the ocean back up and start the entire process all over again, adding a sheet of paper to the stack each time you’ve emptied the ocean.

Do this until the stack of paper reaches from the Earth to the Sun. Take a glance at the timer, you will see that the three left-most digits haven’t even changed. You still have 8.063e67 more seconds to go. 1 Astronomical Unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, is defined as 149,597,870.691 kilometers. So, take the stack of papers down and do it all over again. One thousand times more. Unfortunately, that still won’t do it. There are still more than 5.385e67 seconds remaining. You’re just about a third of the way done.

To pass the remaining time, start shuffling your deck of cards. Every billion years deal yourself a 5-card poker hand. Each time you get a royal flush, buy yourself a lottery ticket. A royal flush occurs in one out of every 649,740 hands. If that ticket wins the jackpot, throw a grain of sand into the Grand Canyon. Keep going and when you’ve filled up the canyon with sand, remove one ounce of rock from Mt. Everest. Now empty the canyon and start all over again. When you’ve levelled Mt. Everest, look at the timer, you still have 5.364e67 seconds remaining. Mt. Everest weighs about 357 trillion pounds. You barely made a dent. If you were to repeat this 255 times, you would still be looking at 3.024e64 seconds. The timer would finally reach zero sometime during your 256th attempt.

(god I love that)

Edited by Rawwr on Thursday 14th June 14:19

P-Jay

10,579 posts

192 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
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Timmy45 said:
  • / carefully opens PnP door */
yikes

  • / closes door hoping the two psychopathic nutters having a shouting match about what guns kill bears haven't noticed */
The odd thing about the argument is neither party takes much interest in the Russians, you would think they put a bit of thought into it and came up with the pistol cum sawn off shotgun / rifle thing, but nah. Someone on PH 30 years later reckons they've cracked it solo in a few mins.

P-Jay

10,579 posts

192 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
fomb said:
Mr2Mike said:
1) It's nowhere near 40%, much lower.
2) The holes are too small to flow any appreciable amount of air, even though there are many of them.
Also, fluid dynamics would dictate that those holes would become effectively blocked by turbulence when in anything more than a light breeze
From practical experience (and a painful one at that) I know a bicycle wheel that's 99% nowt and 1% spoke is like a sail when it's windy.

tertius

6,858 posts

231 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
P-Jay said:
Timmy45 said:
  • / carefully opens PnP door */
yikes

  • / closes door hoping the two psychopathic nutters having a shouting match about what guns kill bears haven't noticed */
The odd thing about the argument is neither party takes much interest in the Russians, you would think they put a bit of thought into it and came up with the pistol cum sawn off shotgun / rifle thing, but nah. Someone on PH 30 years later reckons they've cracked it solo in a few mins.
Though if you follow the link to the Wiki article, it says the special ammunition the TP-82 uses is no longer viable, so they’ve replaced it with a standard semi-auto pistol. Which is what Greg_D suggested they use, so in fact he did!

Watchman

6,391 posts

246 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
droopsnoot said:
Ayahuasca said:
The average depth of a UK canal is only 3 to 4 feet.
Weirdly, even though I know that canals are quite shallow, when I walked across Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and had to deal with oncoming people on the towpath, I was far more worried about falling in the canal (I can't swim) than off the side of the aqueduct.
I walked over that aquaduct with my (then) 4yo son who could have easily slipped between the hand rail uprights.

Fun piece of historical engineering to go and witness but that element of it (or my overactive imagination) made my blood run cold.


Related... The Falkirk wheel can complete a revolution using no more electricity than is required to boil a kettle, and further related to the weight impact upon an aquaduct of a heavy boat, the weight in each trough remains the same whether there is a boat within or not.

I've been around that wheel in one of their tourist boats. Great to have experienced but it's better to watch from outside.