Schlomoe99
- DIY
Make Your Own Ammo
About 230 years ago, molten lead that rained from the sky—historically something to avoid at all costs—became a clever new way to manufacture an important commodity: shotgun ammo. Precisely round pellets fly straighter, but casting each in its own 1/8-inch mold isn’t exactly mass production. In space, making them would be easy. In zero gravity, surface tension pulls any liquid into a sphere, the shape with the least surface area for a given volume.
9.6.2008 at 12:21pm - Comment by Schlomoe99Incidentally, this is the technique used to make Dippin' Dots, the expensive ice cream that comes in tiny, frozen pea-sized spheres. When making it they allow the ice cream to freefall as tiny liquid droplets through a super-cooled (probably -30^F) air chamber. They freeze on the way down and reach the bottom almost perfectly round.
Download Our iPhone App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Become a Fan On Facebook
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
Check out the best of what's new here.
Popular Science Photo Pool
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
- Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers' Heads by 2020
- Batteryless Remote Control Pulls Power from Your Button Presses
- Gull-Wing Firefighting ATV Could Operate in the Middle of Inferno
- New Reactor Uses Sunlight to Turn Water and Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
- High-Pressure Diamond Anvil Creates a New Solid from Xenon and Hydrogen
- At the International Robot Exhibition in Japan, Robots For Your Every Need
- The Dubai Airshow As Seen From Orbit
- So Do Prosthetic Limbs Give Sprinters an Advantage Or Not?
- Smart Armor Knows Its Own Strength, As Well As The Enemy's
- Gallery: At the International Robot Exhibition in Japan, Robots For Your Every Need
Most Commented
- Gallery: At the International Robot Exhibition in Japan, Robots For Your Every Need
- Gallery: SCRATCHbot
- Gallery: The Year's Most Amazing Scientific Images
- The Green Dream Gets a Third Floor
- The First Butterflies Born In Space Take Flight
- Gallery: Future of Snowsports Tech
- Cassini's Latest Flyby of Saturn's Enceladus Moon
- Bringing the LHC Back Online
Most Emailed
- New Reactor Uses Sunlight to Turn Water and Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
- Sighted: A Secret US Aircraft in Afghanistan
- Danish Island Becomes One of the First Energy-Self-Sufficient Places On Earth
- Astronauts Want a Next-Gen Ride 10 Times Safer Than the Shuttle
- Dutch Scientists Grow First Pork Meat In Lab
- Something in the Water Is Feminizing Male Fish. Are We Next?
- Tech Buyer's Guide: Netbooks
- A.I. Anchors Replace Human Reporters In Newsroom of the Future
- New York State Wants to Put Emergency Alerts in Your Online Games
- World's First Osmotic Power Plant Goes Live in Norway
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
