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Read articles, including Science News stories written for ages 9-14, on the
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- Fuzzy future: Kids may suffer impaired vision from spending too little time outdoors, studies suggest
- Building with moon rocks: Working on the moon with lunar soil and grit could prove easier, more efficient and less costly than using earthly materials
- Major twister hits Oklahoma: Its speed, which largely determines the damage it causes, is still unknown
FOR KIDS: How to stop a speeding bullet
Scientists take a close look at a plastic that has Superman’s ability to stop a speeding bullet
Web edition: November 26, 2012
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A new experiment showed how a popular plastic can stop a speeding bullet. The supersmall glass bead in the middle of this image is speeding through plastic at 1,500 meters per second (nearly 1 mile per second). Red areas show where the plastic compresses most on impact.
Thomas Lab/Rice University
A bullet fired into a disk of polyurethane — a type of plastic — may not burst out the other side. In some instances, the bullet will stop in its tracks, frozen by the plastic and sealed inside. How a simple plastic can do this had left researchers scratching their heads. Until now.
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Citations
R. Ehrenberg. Plastic fantastic seals in speeding projectiles. Science News Online, October 30, 2012. [Go to]
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