Most of us will say no. Because from our early school days we know fire needs oxygen to burn. So when you are in the atmosphere less void of space, there is no way to ignite gunpowder to fire a bullet, right? Wrong. The explosion that fires a bullet does require oxygen for combustion, but it doesn’t draw it solely from the air. Rather, some oxygen comes from an ingredient in the gunpowder itself, called saltpeter (Potassium nitrate). The spark produced when the gun’s hammer strikes the cartridge ignites the saltpeter and converts the oxygen in it to its gaseous state. The explosion generates a shock wave that propels the bullet out of the gun. It would certainly help if you pack your cartridges with extra saltpeter to get the same pop in space.
But it won’t be all too easy. Remember the guy named Newton? And his popular third law of motion. The kickback of the gunshot that normally throws your arm backward after you fire a round would instead send your entire body flying backwards.
Are you still going to take a shot?
info: popular science.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Go Devils!!!
Our first game of the indoor intramural soccer tournament (organized by SDSU wellness center) kicked off today @ 8:00 PM. Our team’s name is Red Devils and we did win it by a healthy margin of 4-0.
I reached the wellness center at 7:15 and jogged one mile to loosen up my muscles. By 7:30 everyone from our team had arrived and we had a short team meeting. I was feeling pretty good about the game, I guess we all were feeling pretty good about it. I put on my relatively new indoor soccer shoes and started my second round of warm up with the team followed by some stretching.
The match started on time. We played on 2-2-2 format (its 7 a side) but we stick to our habits, all of us were charging ahead, in and around opponents’ D-area, leaving our golie alone. We don’t have a natural defender in our team except Nabeen and most of us play as striker or in midfield. We dominated the play for the entire first half but just couldn’t score. In a small field and all of us ahead and all of them behind (naturally), we just didn’t have much space to maneuver the ball around and their keeper was excellent. He dived around all the time and frustrated us. I played in midfield and got a good chance near their D. I connected pretty well, beat the keeper , but the ball was deflected away by the defender from the goal line. Hard Luck. The first half ended as 0-0, leaving us still searching for our first breakthrough, even though it was us who possessed the ball and kept shooting most of the time. They barely brought the ball into our half and never had a single shot on target.
We had a short team meeting in the break. We talked about sticking to our position and spreading the field by more passes. We feared they might score and take the game away from us as our golie was a loner in our half. We also felt we have to pass it around to beat their keeper as the goal post was small and their golie was pretty good too.
Second half started and they got a free kick right away inside our half near the center line. Their golie came forward to take the kick, and good lord he almost scored. His shot was accurate from the distance but our golie did well to punch it over the top. Shortly we started dictating the play. We played to our plan and did spread the field by good passes. I passed the ball from the center to my right to Bryan and lunged forward for support; Bryan beat the lone defender easily and prepared to take a shot. I kept going forward to capitalize if just in case the ball is deflected by keeper or from the goal post. But it wasn’t required as Bryan took a perfect shot and the ball crashed into the left corner of the net beating the diving keeper. We all were jubilant and our plan had paid off. We kept playing the same game and David scored our second goal after little while. Two nil up and less than 10 minutes for final whistle, we started to sense a win. Now they got new golie and their previous golie came forward. We soon scored a third one and another one just before the whistle. They too had some moments in second half but never got an easy chance. The match ended with 4-0 score line.
We certainly deserved to win this game and it was satisfying to get the favorable result. We shook hands with our opponents and referees before assembling for our final analysis of the game. Before leaving we all joined our hands, brought it down and shouted “RED DEVILS” as our hands went up.
I reached the wellness center at 7:15 and jogged one mile to loosen up my muscles. By 7:30 everyone from our team had arrived and we had a short team meeting. I was feeling pretty good about the game, I guess we all were feeling pretty good about it. I put on my relatively new indoor soccer shoes and started my second round of warm up with the team followed by some stretching.
The match started on time. We played on 2-2-2 format (its 7 a side) but we stick to our habits, all of us were charging ahead, in and around opponents’ D-area, leaving our golie alone. We don’t have a natural defender in our team except Nabeen and most of us play as striker or in midfield. We dominated the play for the entire first half but just couldn’t score. In a small field and all of us ahead and all of them behind (naturally), we just didn’t have much space to maneuver the ball around and their keeper was excellent. He dived around all the time and frustrated us. I played in midfield and got a good chance near their D. I connected pretty well, beat the keeper , but the ball was deflected away by the defender from the goal line. Hard Luck. The first half ended as 0-0, leaving us still searching for our first breakthrough, even though it was us who possessed the ball and kept shooting most of the time. They barely brought the ball into our half and never had a single shot on target.
We had a short team meeting in the break. We talked about sticking to our position and spreading the field by more passes. We feared they might score and take the game away from us as our golie was a loner in our half. We also felt we have to pass it around to beat their keeper as the goal post was small and their golie was pretty good too.
Second half started and they got a free kick right away inside our half near the center line. Their golie came forward to take the kick, and good lord he almost scored. His shot was accurate from the distance but our golie did well to punch it over the top. Shortly we started dictating the play. We played to our plan and did spread the field by good passes. I passed the ball from the center to my right to Bryan and lunged forward for support; Bryan beat the lone defender easily and prepared to take a shot. I kept going forward to capitalize if just in case the ball is deflected by keeper or from the goal post. But it wasn’t required as Bryan took a perfect shot and the ball crashed into the left corner of the net beating the diving keeper. We all were jubilant and our plan had paid off. We kept playing the same game and David scored our second goal after little while. Two nil up and less than 10 minutes for final whistle, we started to sense a win. Now they got new golie and their previous golie came forward. We soon scored a third one and another one just before the whistle. They too had some moments in second half but never got an easy chance. The match ended with 4-0 score line.
We certainly deserved to win this game and it was satisfying to get the favorable result. We shook hands with our opponents and referees before assembling for our final analysis of the game. Before leaving we all joined our hands, brought it down and shouted “RED DEVILS” as our hands went up.