Sniper5000

I was bored, and being a nerd, I started thinking about both physics and Nerf at the same time. If a barrel is too short, the dart spins out. Too long = too much resistance, which leads to poor range. So what exactly IS the ideal barrel length? Not that it really matters to have it down to three decimal places, but it might be cool. I'm about a third of the way there to calculating a formula relating barrel length and air pressure, but I need some help.

The way I figure, once the dart has left the barrel, any excess air pressure will only cause the dart to spin out and lose accuracy, so the ideal length SHOULD be one in which the pressure in the barrel reaches 14.7 psi (pressure @ sea level) just as the dart exits the barrel. The only problem with this is that the results would yield an extremely long barrel length, since the formula neglects the friction of the dart on the brass* barrel.

I have an idea for an experiment to measure the resistance of the dart in the barrel, but I'm not sure how accurate the results would be. I'll try to draw up a flash doc to show you how it would work. In the mean time, anyone have any input?

*For these calculations I assume we are using straightened micro stefans being fired from a home made (Where pressure can be measured) with a brass barrel.

I have several completely unrelated things to say here, so I just stuck it in this forum.

First, anyone here remember me? I recognize a few of these names, but mainly just Cx and the other admins. I had a little spare time (a rare comodity for me these days) so I figured I'd drop in and say 'Hello'. Anyway, I looked through the mod tutorials on this site and while impressive, I do still have all of my old site's content. Most of it's probably ourdated, but I do have a few brass barrel mods that, while nothing amazing, might still be useful to newbies. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to donate (dump) all of it to NH.

Also, I took a look at boltsniper's new clip-loading homemade rifle, and I have to say it's probably the best thing we've seen around ehre in homemades since Stefan darts, at least in my opinion. I've been recently interested in creating a semi-auto shotgun just for old time's sake. I plan on using some of the same idea's bolt used- I'll let you all know how it goes. I have a couple of ideas that could possibly make it a decent weapon (err... Nerf-wise).

So, what do you guys have to eat around here?