Paintball Differences

[kutter]

Lohman I think what you may be thinking of is the formula F=MA, where force=mass x acceleration. The heavier object will impact with greater force, ie. greater likely hood of breaking, but both will travel at the same speed.

Now if I remember a little about balistic tables a heavier projectile will not bleed off speed as quickly as a lighter one, so may it actually travel further?

It's been some time since I was exposed to physics so one of you braniacs chime in, come on I know that ya'll are out there

[BarryTolar]

So an object weighing 1 ounce traveling at 100mph has the same energy as an object weight 1 pound traveling at 100mph ?

And generally speaking a heavier projectile will be more stable at long distances than a lighter projectile. (take firing a .223 and a .30 caliber at 1000+ yards for an example- not a real good example cause I know that AR15s are now pretty much the norm at Camp Perry and other long range matches but still a 55 grain bullet is going to be less stable at 1000 yards than a 150 grain one)


Barry

[kutter]

Barry, I thought the formula was pretty clear, of course your example will not have the same amount of energy. The mass is different so force will be different. I was pointing out that at equivalent speeds the heavier one will have more force and thus be more likely to break. Maybe you meant something like a 1gr object traveling 1t 1000kph will have the same force as a 1kg object traveling at 1kph?

As for the second part, I tried, very feebly I must admit, to find the formula for objects of differeing weights traveling at the same speed and how much they will each slow down, but I could not. I know that a 155gr bullet does not speed nearly as fast as a 55gr bullet, so it would seem to my, admittedly uneducated mind, that it would travel farther. But I know that there are a lot of variables in the formula eg. mass, speed, resistance, to just name a few. I know that some of the braniacs on here know the answer, come on guys, 'Throw me a freaking bone here.'

[Lohman446]

It seems to me that we have taken speed out of the equation - I mean, we will just increase our marker pressure until we get the heavier projectile to 300fps, the same limit we set for the lighter projectile. It would seem to me... that if we had a heavy and a light projectile (with basically all other charateristics being the same) travelling at the same speed, that the heavier one would go further.

[Skoad]

throw a baseball as hard as you can, then throw a ping pong ball as hard as you can.

[Kid_A]

I'm not sure if my explanation is going to be correct but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Assuming that 2 paintballs of big mass M and little mass m travel at the same speed are shaped exactly alike and are traveling under the same conditions (spin, drag of wind, gravity and what not) they will each feel the same retarding force due to the drag of Air. Since force = mass * acceleration, the ball of mass M will decelerate less than the lighter ball of mass m, meaning that the heavier ball will travel further when they both feel a retarding force (drag) and are NOT in a vacuum.

[rx2]

It is true that of two objects of the same size and shape, the more massive will be less affected by the resistance of air. Just as it takes more energy to accelerate a heavier object, it takes more energy to decelerate it, as well. Of course, this is not to say that the difference in distance will be appreciable.

[kutter]

I just thought of something weird though. It seems plain now that a heavier ball will be more likley to break since there is more force involved, but, and here is the thing do you want to carry a pack that weighs 35% more? I mean I play back and 13 pods weigh enough as is, so with that much more weight, it could be an issue.

The real irony too is that the back players need the extra mass more than anyone since their paintballs have to fly further. Am I way off base here, maybe it does not make a difference? Anyone else have a thought?

[c2l1k]

Which one takes more force to stop, a train, or a volkswagon? the train obviously takes more. it's an exaggerated scale, but the point is clear: a heavier ball will fly further because (given the same variables) the retarding force has to slow down more mass. >>>> F=MA <<<< (see skoad's comment for another clear picture)

now, the balls WILL hit the ground at the same time, b/c as we alllll remember, the X and Y equations are seperate in trajectory. assuming you're not using a flatline barrel, if i drop a ball from the same height and at the same time you shoot one, they will both hit the ground at the same time (also assuming a level surface).

however, like rx2 said, the difference in distance is probably so little that this whole topic is really just re-discovering high school physics. have fun

[ratmonkey]

allright assuming the balls are exactly the same except for the differing weights. the heavier ball will exit the muzzle of the paingun with more kinetic energy than the lighter ball. therefore it has more energy to dissipate than the light one.
we'd need to use kinetic energy theory to get into specifics, you have air resistance that will apply a varying force upon the ball depending upon the speed of the ball but that air resistance translates into a negative application of energy to the ball. therefore the ball with the higher initial energy will have more energy to dissipate.
conclusion. the heavier ball WILL travel further than the lighter ball before impacting the zero height plane. both balls are falling at the same rate but are decelerating at different rates.

[sbpyro]

Are we talking inertia here ???
From my experience (generally shooting team colors right now)
There are some differences in paint in terms of brittle paint or bouncy paint (I've never looked at the fill weight though ) Being a rec player myself I've generally never had too much problems with Team colors, pmi, and even powerball (way back in the day). I've seen proball bounce like crazy (platinum was nice though). I'd avoid BE stuff but that is just because it always looked like garbage and I've held that belief since.

[BarryTolar]

Kutter

It would seem that is would take longer to get a heavy projectile up to speed. The question is does it also take longer for the heavy projectile to bleed off that speed. Yes I took physics. If you look at ANY ballistic chart you will see that a heavier projectile has more energy downrange than a lighter one traveling at the same speed.

Does this mean it's going to go farther than a light one ?


Where this comes into play with paintball is the fact that no matter what weight paintball is shot the speed is still 300 FPS.

So a heavier paintball will have more energy at range than a lighter one. From personal experience I can say that in the old days Diablo Inferno DID hold true and have a straighter trajectory than other paints I tried. Still don't know if it actually went farther but I can say it had a longer "useable" distance. I'd say ratmonkey pretty much has this spot on in his description.

Rambling as always
Barry