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LivePhoto IVV Physics Activity 1 Name: __________________________

Bullet-Block_for Postingv3.docx

Date: ___________________________
The Bullet-Block Mystery

I. Introduction

If a vertically mounted .22 caliber rifle fires a bullet upwards into a

block of wood in line with the block’s center-of-mass, the bullet
penetrates into the block causing it to rise almost one meter without
spinning as shown in a popular YouTube video.1 If the shot is
repeated with the bullet hitting a block “off center” (Figs. 1b and 2b),
would the block travel straight up or in another direction? Would it
be spinning? Would it rise to the same height?
It turns out that the “off-center” bullet causes an “identical” block to
rise straight up to essentially the same height, except that the block
acquires rotational kinetic energy and spins counter-clockwise as it
rises and falls. This is puzzling. How can the bullet impart more
kinetic energy to a block that’s shot “off-center” and yet the blocks
rise to the about the same height? This doesn’t seem to make sense!
Maybe the off-center bullet doesn’t penetrate as far into the block, so
that more of its initial energy is available to start the block spinning. Fig.1: A rifle aimed at
However, x-rays of two blocks depicted in Fig. 4 show no significant a 2”x4” block edges:
[a] on center and [b]
difference in penetration depth of the bullets! off center.
This is a mystery! Can this be explained? Perhaps the energy lost as
a bullet penetrates into a block is much greater than the kinetic energy
it imparts to the block. Then a small, immeasurable change in
penetration distance could result in significant changes in a block’s
linear and rotational kinetic energy.
If the energy a bullet loses changing its shape and breaking chemical
bonds in the wood is much larger than the linear and rotational kinetic Fig. 2: Edges of 5”
energy acquired by the block, then the height difference between a lengths of 2x4 hit
(top) on-center and
spinning and non-spinning block might not be measureable! (bottom) off center.
In this assignment, you can use the data from a manufacturer that lists
the mass and muzzle velocity of a bullet to calculate both the kinetic
energy of a typical bullet and also to determine how much energy it
loses plowing into a block.
In addition you will be asked to use conservation of momentum as a
bullet penetrates into a block to determine the linear and rotational
kinetic energy as a block starts rising during on-center and off-center
collisions.

1
A video of this phenomenon can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWVZ6APXM4w or by
viewing an “in-house” video of a hypothetical student completing the Bullet Block Interactive Video Vignette. It is
entitled <BB_Beta-1_Demo.mov>.

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II. Preliminary Questions

Note: You will receive full credit for thoughtful answers to these preliminary questions
whether or not they agree with conclusions you draw in the sections that follow. It’s
important to think about how you can analyze what happens. Do not change your answers
to these preliminary questions based on calculations you perform later.
Let’s consider a block suspended by nails held up by two pieces of Plexiglas® (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3: A 2” x 4” block is suspended by
nails between two pieces of Plexiglas
so that it is free to move upward when
hit from below by a bullet.

The x-rays in Figure 4 shows what happens to the bullet when a block is shot (a) on-center
and (b) off-center.
Fig. 4: X-ray images of 5” lengths of 2” by 4” pine board
showing the bullet penetration into each block: (a) on-
center (left image) or (b) off- center (right image). The
small hole halfway up each block holds support nails
(a) (b) mounted at the center of each block’s face.

1. On-Center Penetration: Consider a bullet shot upward toward the center of a block as
shown in Fig. 4 (a). What quantities of this system should remain the same between just
before the bullet hits the block and just after the bullet stops penetrating into the block?
Circle your answers and explain why you picked them.
Linear Momentum of the T F
Block–Bullet system

Angular Momentum of the T F

Block–Bullet system

Kinetic Energy of the T F

Block–Bullet system

2. Off-Center Penetration: What happens when a bullet is shot upward to the right of
the center of mass of a block i.e. “off center” and penetrates into the block as shown in
Figure 4(b). According to the laws of physics, what quantities of this bullet-block
system should be conserved between just before the bullet hits the block and just after
the bullet has stopped penetrating into the block. Also identify which quantities, if
any, are not conserved. Circle your answers and explain why you picked them.
Linear Momentum of the T F
Block–Bullet system

Angular Momentum of the T F

Block–Bullet system

Kinetic Energy of the T F

Block–Bullet system

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III. On Center Bullet/Block Calculations

About the Bullets: The bullets used in the videos you are analyzing were manufactured
by CCI. As you can see in Figure 2, the hollow point copper plated lead bullet
compresses into a ball shape as it enters the wood.

Bullet Mass (w/o casing):

mb = 2.3 g = 2.3x10-3 Kg
Fig. 5: A hollow
point bullet and its Muzzle Speed of the Bullet:
casing containing vb = 384 m/s. Note that this is probably an average or a
air and gunpowder
maximum. There will obviously be differences from
bullet to bullet because the amount of gunpowder in the
casing that ignites to push the bullet upward may vary.

After Bullet Entry: The mass of a rising block, M, is the sum of the initial mass of the
block, the mass of the suspension nails (shown in Fig. 3), and the mass of embedded bullet as
shown below:
M = mblock + mnails + mbullet = 222g + 3.8g + 2.3g = 228 g = 0.228 kg
In the introduction to this assignment, we suggested that you use momentum and energy
calculations to determine whether the energy the bullet loses while changing shape and
breaking chemical bonds is large enough to explain why height differences between a
spinning and non-spinning block are not significant. Let’s start by analyzing an on-center
shot like that shown in Fig. 6.

Plexiglas Fig. 6: Photo of the bullet/block setup

Block showing a suspended block that has just
Suspension been hit on-center by a bullet and risen
Point to a height of about 0.83 m. NOTE: The
Muzzle height was calculated using the known
length of 1.25 m for the extended
support table as a scale object.

Scale Object:
1.25 m
!
a) Linear Momentum of the Bullet-Block System Just After Penetration: Use the fact that
linear momentum is always conserved in a collision to calculate the magnitude of the bullet-
block momentum, pbB, just after the bullet stops plowing into the block. Assume that the
bullet of mass mb = 2.3g enters the block at the manufacturer’s reported speed of vb = 384
m/s.

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b) The Kinetic Energy of a Typical Bullet Before it Enters the Block: Use the
manufacturer’s data given in the last section for a bullet’s mass and muzzle speed in m/s to
show that a typical bullet’s kinetic energy just before it enters the block is about KEb = 170 J.

c) Potential Energy of the Bullet/Block System: Recall that the mass of our block with its
embedded bullet and support nails has a mass of M = 0.228kg and rises to a height of h =
0.83m (as depicted in Fig. 6). Show that at its highest point the block & bullet has a potential
energy, PEBb, of 1.86J.

d) Initial Kinetic Energy of the Bullet/Block System: If air resistance is negligible, the
potential energy of the block and bullet at the top of their 0.83m rise should equal the kinetic
energy of the block and bullet just as the bullet stops plowing into the wood. What is the
kinetic energy of the block and bullet system, KEBb, just as the bullet stops plowing into the
wood?

e) Consider a hypothetical situation in which none of the bullet’s energy was wasted
breaking chemical bonds in the wood. Approximately what would the maximum height,
Hmax that the block and bullet would rise in this case? NOTE: Don’t be surprised if the value
you calculate for Hmax is much higher than the height that a typical block rises!

f) What percentage of bullet energy is transformed to gravitational Potential Energy: You

should be able to show that the actual rise of the block is only a small percent of what it
would be if the bullet/block system retained all the kinetic energy that the bullet had before
penetration into the block. Show your calculations.

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IV. Off Center Bullet/Block Calculations

Recall what happened when you looked at the video of an identical block rising just after being
hit off-center. Even though the block was spinning rapidly, it rose to about the same height as the
block that was hit “on-center!” This could be explained if the bullet didn’t penetrate as far so that
more of its energy was left to cause the block to rise and spin rapidly.
The idea that the off-center bullet doesn’t penetrate as far makes sense for two reasons: (1) If the
block spins away from the bullet then the bullet won’t have as much time to penetrate into it; and
(2) since you just showed that in an on-center shot almost 99% percent of the bullet’s energy is
lost plowing into the block, perhaps the off-center bullet doesn’t penetrate quite as deep and
there’s enough energy to start the block spinning rapidly.
NOTE: We expect variations in bullet speeds and block densities to cause differences in block
heights from shot to shot, even when other factors are the same. What surprises most observers is
that on average, blocks shot on-center and off-center both seems to rise to about the same height.

Fig. 7: Photos of just the top of each path for eight blocks shot into the air “on center” under “identical conditions.”
These height variations are probably due to differences in the block densities and each bullet’s muzzle velocity.

Is the rotational kinetic energy of a spinning block hit “off-center” significant compared to a
block’s kinetic energy when shot on-center? To see if this rotational kinetic energy is
significant, you can perform sample rotational energy calculations for identical blocks of length
12.7 cm (shown in Fig. 2) when one is hit “on-center” and the other is hit 3.4 cm to the right of
center.
The equation needed to calculate the rotational kinetic energy of rectangular block spinning about
its center of mass is
Erot = 12 Iω 2 [Eq. 1]

I is the block’s rotational inertia and 𝜔 denotes the magnitude of its angular velocity. By using
data on a typical block’s mass and dimensions, you can easily calculate the values of I and 𝜔
needed to determine it’s rotational energy and to determine whether this energy is significant
compared to the energy lost by the bullet when it’s embedded in a block.
The equation for rotational inertia, I, derived in most introductory textbooks for a flat block of
length L and width W spinning around its center of mass is given by
!
𝐼 = !" 𝑀 𝐿2 + 𝑊2 . [Eq. 2]
The blocks used in this bullet-block experiment each had a mass, M, of about 0.222 kg and a face
length and width given by L = 0.127 m and W = 0.102 m.

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a) Rotational Inertia of the Spinning Block: Using data just presented for M, L and W, show
that the block that was hit off-center had a rotational inertia of about I = 5.0 x10-4 kg-m2.

b) Rotational Speed of a Typical Spinning Block: To determine rotational speed, 𝜔 in radians

per second of a typical rotating block, we acquired typical spin rate data by viewing the video
entitled <BB_Beta 1_Demo.mov>. One segment recorded at 2 min 52 sec shows a 500 fps
B&W image of the spinning block that took 43 frames to complete a full turn. So the time for
a single turn through an angle of 2𝜋 radians was given by T = (43/500)s = 0.086s per turn.
Use the definition of 𝜔 to show that the block’s rotational speed in radians per second is
𝜔  = 73 rad/s.

c) Rotational Energy: Using Eq. 1 it can be shown that the block’s rotational energy is only
about 1.3 Joules. This is much smaller than the original kinetic energy of the bullet of about
170 Joules [as you calculated in Section III. (b)].

d) Fraction of Bullet’s Energy Transformed to the Kinetic Energy of the Block: The block
being shot off-center appears to be spinning very rapidly. Even so, when a block hit off-center
starts to rise, it only has about 1.3 Joules of rotational kinetic energy and 1.9 Joules of linear
kinetic energy that you calculated in section III. d. This is a very small amount of energy
compared to the 170 Joules of kinetic energy that the bullet had just before it entered the
block! What percent of the bullet’s initial KE contributed to the KE of the bullet block?

V. Reflections on Your Findings

Summarize what you learned about the nature of energy and momentum in non-elastic materials
from viewing the bullet/block video for on-center and off-center bullets and completing this
assignment. Use your own words to explain why blocks hit on-center and off-center seem to rise
to the same height even though the block hit off center has additional rotational energy.

NOTE: Two well-known physics professors have posted videos explaining the Bullet/Block phenomenon:
1. Rhett Alain: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/the-bullet-block-problem-with-a-twist/
2. Chad Orzel: http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2013/08/21/how-deep-does-veritasiums-bullet-go/

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