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

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.

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. 😂

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

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.

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.

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

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. 😊

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!

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.

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

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

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

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!?

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 !

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.

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 ❤

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

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.

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.

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.