More science-related photos

[ChrisC]

I know there's a thread for this sort of thing buried somewhere, but it makes me feel like a big man to start new ones. :D
Anyway, here are a few old images from my high-speed photography experiments that I thought might be enjoyed here. They're resized and quite compressed so the image quality is compromised, but I still think they're cool.

Image 1: This is a BB entering a balloon at about 500 feet/second. You can see the shockwave starting to spread and the BB just inside the balloon (it's the little copper blob).
http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_72134510830ae27da.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=1530)

Image 2: This is a balloon about 25% though the process of tearing. I believe it was shot with a BB gun as well.
http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_7213451083cfdfb21.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=1531)

Image 3: This is one of my favorite shots. The balloon is about 75% torn and you can see the BB about to exit the other side. It's stretching the latex, but has not actually broken through it yet.
http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_7213451084bb976df.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=1532)

Note that it is not the same balloon in every photo (that experiment failed ;) ). If anyone is interested, a modified flash (to allow very short duration) was fired by using a sound trigger fed to a delay circuit that enabled me to add 1000ths of seconds between sound and flash. I had to make a silencer for the BB gun to use this setup to avoid mis-triggering. The cost for equipment was maybe $20, if that. Totally worth it.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Whoa! You took these photos? So cool!

I'm rather surprised that the balloon reaches that degree of destruction while the BB is still in it. I would have thought the BB would be long gone before the balloon was so torn up.

~~ Paul

[mumchup]

Those are really cool pics Chris

[Zombified]

These are cool! You can see in the first and last picture how the BB is travelling faster than waves propogate on the balloon itself...

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the compliments. I learned a lot about what actually happens when a balloon breaks and the speed in which those events happen. The balloon turns to little rubber bits so quickly that you can pop a water balloon and capture a balloon shaped mass of water in mid air. I've got quite a few other ideas in my notes that I've yet to try. There's a Rubbermaid tub full of cheap Ikea wine glasses ("reallly, honey, I can use these!") that are destined for destruction. I'd also like to try some higher velocity projectiles, perhaps .22 rounds.
Thanks again!

[I'll_buy_that]

can you upload the pics of the water balloons?

[sir drinks-a-lot]

Sweet. Yeah, Upload the water balloons!

Fascinating photos. What do you have in mind for the wine glasses?

[miatasport99]

I'd also like to try some higher velocity projectiles, perhaps .22 rounds.
Thanks again!

I'm guessing you won't be making a silencer for that experiment.

[Foster Zygote]

Those are really cool! I'd love to see more. High speed photography fascinates me. I remember an old piece of film I saw of a Coke bottle being smashed with a hammer. You could actually see the bottle deflect and then see the cracks propagate along the length of the bottle. Some of the larger pieces could even be seen oscillating like an unstrung bow as they flew through the air.

Again, cool stuff.

Steven

[ChrisC]

I'm trying to get the water balloon photos off of an uncooperative hard drive as we speak (well, as I type). IIRC, There's also some CD's and light bulbs shattering and cans of pop bursting. Hopefully I can salvage the data. Currently the drive is going *whirrr-grindy noise-pause-repeat*. I've heard it before and it's not good. Second Western Digital drive to do this to me.

One of the things I want to do with the glasses is set up 3 in a row and time the flash so that I get a shot that looks like *glass destroyed with a few fragments still in the air > half destroyed but pieces still in glass-like form > projectile just entering*. That will almost certainly require a faster and heavier projectile, but someone else is going to have to provide the firearm since I haven't got an FAC or PAL.

Definitely no silencer for the firearm. I like my freedom. :) Honestly, I'm not even sure about the legality of making one for the BB gun since it's not a firearm under Canadian law, but the act of making the silencer might be a crime. I'm guessing, in a worst-case scenario, it would be seized and I would be told not to be an idiot. It was simply a quick and easy solution to a problem. Attention law enforcement officers: please don't arrest me! It was all in the name of science! :D

I don't recall seeing the Coke bottle film, but it sounds like the kind of thing that inspired me to give HSP a try myself. If you come across it somewhere or know where I can view it, please let me know. It sounds cool!

I feel inspired to break out the HSP stuff again. Even if I can't retrieve the old photos, perhaps I'll take some new ones. Thanks again for all the comments and compliments.

[Cuddles]

Those are awesome. I demand more. :D

[Taffer]

These are awsome! What camera did you use to take them?

[Dragonrock]

I'm trying to get the water balloon photos off of an uncooperative hard drive as we speak (well, as I type). IIRC, There's also some CD's and light bulbs shattering and cans of pop bursting. Hopefully I can salvage the data. Currently the drive is going *whirrr-grindy noise-pause-repeat*. I've heard it before and it's not good. Second Western Digital drive to do this to me.

One of the things I want to do with the glasses is set up 3 in a row and time the flash so that I get a shot that looks like *glass destroyed with a few fragments still in the air > half destroyed but pieces still in glass-like form > projectile just entering*. That will almost certainly require a faster and heavier projectile, but someone else is going to have to provide the firearm since I haven't got an FAC or PAL.

Definitely no silencer for the firearm. I like my freedom. :) Honestly, I'm not even sure about the legality of making one for the BB gun since it's not a firearm under Canadian law, but the act of making the silencer might be a crime. I'm guessing, in a worst-case scenario, it would be seized and I would be told not to be an idiot. It was simply a quick and easy solution to a problem. Attention law enforcement officers: please don't arrest me! It was all in the name of science! :D

I don't recall seeing the Coke bottle film, but it sounds like the kind of thing that inspired me to give HSP a try myself. If you come across it somewhere or know where I can view it, please let me know. It sounds cool!

I feel inspired to break out the HSP stuff again. Even if I can't retrieve the old photos, perhaps I'll take some new ones. Thanks again for all the comments and compliments.

Don't worry about the silencer and use a .22 caliber pistol. 99% of people wouldn't recognize a gunshot if they heard one and a .22 sounds more like a pop gun anyway.

[MortFurd]

Not the problem. He used a silencer on the bb-gun to get his acoustic flash trigger to trigger on the right noise. He's thinking he'd need to do the same thing when using a .22 - which is likely illegal.

I think he just needs a little more electronics in the flash circuit. Simplest would be a delay after the trigger so that the flash occurs at the right time.

[Dragonrock]

Not the problem. He used a silencer on the bb-gun to get his acoustic flash trigger to trigger on the right noise. He's thinking he'd need to do the same thing when using a .22 - which is likely illegal.

I think he just needs a little more electronics in the flash circuit. Simplest would be a delay after the trigger so that the flash occurs at the right time.

Thank you, I'm a dolt.

A well maintained pistol and store bought munitions offer enough consistency that he should be able to time it off of the trigger pull rather than having to determine exactly when the round leaves the barrel.

[bjb]

Maybe you could put a 'silencer' on the acoustic flash trigger instead of the gun?

[ChrisC]

I should have noted (actually, I thought I did but I don't see it in my post) that I have a few solutions for the problem of noise if I use a firearm. I can either trigger it by using a very directional mic and increasing the distance between muzzle and target as BJB has suggested (my original plan), I can fire the projectile through a photo trigger, or I can try to trigger off of the firearm discharge like Dragonrock suggested. For the record, since I was unclear in my other post, I'm avoiding anything that might be unlawful if I use a firearm. Definitely no silencer.

Taffer: My equipment for these shots is actually pretty modest. For the camera, at least for those pics, I used a Olympus C5060 digital cam. It's somewhere between an SLR and a point-and-shoot. Full manual functions and a decent quality lens. Any camera that has a shutter with a bulb or long exposure setting and manual f-stop would have worked for me. The flash is a Sunpak Auto 388 (5 bucks at goodwill) that I made a simple modification to. The flash duration in the auto modes are controlled by a photoresistor that reads the light levels, so I made it so I could switch to a potentiometer to manually control it. This way, I can get bursts of light shorter than originally intended. I also added an RCA jack in parallel with the original flash sync jack because RCA cables are easier to find/make, cheaper, and somewhat tougher. I built the other gear using RCA ins/outs for the same reason.

Good link: www.hiviz.com Pretty much covers how to try it yourself. Their delay circuit is very similar to mine, so it's probably safe to assume it works well enough. All of the circuits are easy enough that someone with no experience could put them together with a bit of effort.

Hopefully more photos soon. The hard drive is still no good, but I'll make some new exposures when I have a little free time.

[Soapy Sam]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the high-speed orb in every one of those pics! Spirit manifestation!
Very fine work, Chris.

[Ratatoskr]

Its really cool to see these kind of pictures, wish I had the time and equipment to try it myself.. Anyway, here is a great collection I found some time ago:
http://web.mit.edu/Edgerton/www/ShortCourse.html

[ysabella]

I would love to see the water balloon shots! Good luck with the hard drive.

[LTC8K6]

I just bought a 1000fps pellet rifle. Maybe you could use one of those for a few shots?