DM> They say if you drop a dime of the Empire State Building, and
 DM> it hits someone on the head whilst passing by at street level,
 DM> it would pass through almost the entire vertical length of the
 DM> body.

 BL> An arrow fired slows down. Its highest speed is off the end of
 BL> the string, and such an arrow is not capable of spitting a
 BL> person, so why would dropping it do any better?

 BL> A dropped arrow would do better than a bullet. It is heavier to
 BL> start with (more energy), it has directional stability, and the
 BL> shape is better for penetration at low speed. On the other
 BL> hand, you'd do better using a bow. A dime is not worth a dime
 BL> for killing people off a high place.

 DM> Consider a stone flung from the road by a passing car or truck,
 DM> at a closing velocity of 80 kms each.

  Bikies get hit with them all the time. They hurt... but they don't
go straight through, or even penetrate. A shanghai will fire a bullet
at 100K (30m/s), but the difference between that and a M-16 at 900m/s
is actually 1000-times in energy. It hurts, but it doesn't penetrate.

 DM> That stone has sufficient force to star or shatter a
 DM> windscreen. By empirical analysis, I have determined that a
 DM> windscreen is harder then my head. However, I find getting out
 DM> of this canvas jacket with the extra-long sleeves a tad
 DM> difficult, so it will take me a while longer to complete my
 DM> tests.

  What you see there is force (F = E/s) and pressure (F/A)

  A windscreen hardly deforms. The distance is very small and the
force is concentrated into a small area. A body is soft and deforms
around the bullet. The distance would be 2cm before something breaks,
and it wraps aroundf the *whole* bullet. You are comparing 2cm with a
millimetre (the windscreen is subjected to a 20-times greater force)
and an area of a square millimtre with 20 sq.mm (another 20-times
less pressure).

  As for your head... it's thicker than glass anyway.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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