Image of hypervelocity impact test.

[RainDreamer]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/06/Hypervelocity_impact_test_damage

This is what happen when you fire a fleck of aluminum oxide the size of a grain of sand at hypervelocity:

The target was a 15x15cm aluminum plate 1.2mm thick. The hole in the image is 28x12 mm.

It seems like the most powerful weapon the universe has is speed. Throw something fast enough and it will obliterate anything.

Edited July 16, 2015 by RainDreamer

[livefree75]

Such POWER

[Starwhip]

P = M * V

That's a large hole...

EDIT:

This is incredibly relevant.

Relativistic Baseball

[LittleBlueGaming]

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/06/Hypervelocity_impact_test_damage

This is what happen when you fire a fleck of aluminum oxide the size of a grain of sand at hypervelocity:

http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2015/06/hypervelocity_impact_test_damage/15436934-1-eng-GB/Hypervelocity_impact_test_damage_node_full_image_2.jpg

The target was a 15x15cm aluminum plate 1.2mm thick. The hole in the image is 28x12 mm.

It seems like the most powerful weapon the universe have is speed. Throw something fast enough and it will obliterate anything.

Cool.

Speed, time, and compound interest... always wear your safety goggles when dealing with any of them.

[Amram]

speed is definitely the most powerful factor. ½mv². Note the v².

assuming "medium" sand, from the third reference, assuming spherical at 0.25mm radius, it has a volume of 6.54498E-05cm³, aluminum oxide has a density of 3.95g/cm³, so the fleck is around 2.585E-04 grams.

at the lower 10km/sec they mention, and assuming their spec masses about the same as a grain of sand...,

2.585E-06kg * 0.5 * 1E5²m/s = 12925 joules

By comparison, that is 3.7 times the punch of a single round from one of these

[Wingman703]

It seems like the most powerful weapon the universe have is speed. Throw something fast enough and it will obliterate anything.

If you don't mind, I'm sigging that, with some edits for grammar

[RainDreamer]

If you don't mind, I'm sigging that, with some edits for grammar

Sure, I don't mind.

[Scotius]

Watch and laugh You're not the first to realise that velocity kills