A projectile is any object sent through space by the application of a force. In a general sense, even a football or baseball may be considered a projectile, but in practice most projectiles are designed as weapons. The football as used in football/soccer. ... Baseball is a team sport in which a player on one team (the pitcher) attempts to throw a hard, fist-sized ball past a player on the other team (the batter), who attempts to hit the baseball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical stick called a bat. ... A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ...

Motive force

Arrows, darts, spears, and similar weapons are fired using pure mechanical force applied by another solid object; conversely, other weapons use the compression or expansion of gases as their motive force. Japanese arrow (ya) and head An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow. ... Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. ... Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National Park. ...

Blowguns and pneumatic rifles use compressed gases, while most other guns and firearms utilize expanding gases liberated by sudden chemical reactions. Light gas guns use a combination of these mechanisms. A blowgun or blowpipe is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing light projectiles, or darts. ... Air guns are weapons that propel a bullet using compressed air or another gas, possibly liquefied. ... 155 mm M198 howitzer U.S. Army soldier with a compact M249 variant USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside of nine 16/50 and six 5/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984. ... An assortment of modern firearms using fixed ammunition, including military assault rifles, a sporting shotgun (fourth from bottom), and a tactical shotgun (third from bottom). ... The light gas gun is a highly specialized gun designed to generate very high velocities. ...

Railguns provide a constant acceleration along the entire length of the device, greatly increasing the muzzle velocity. A railgun is a form of gun that converts electrical energy—rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant—into projectile kinetic energy. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ...

Some projectiles provide propulsion during (part of) the flight by means of a rocket engine or jet engine. In military terminology, a rocket is unguided, while a missile is guided. Note the two meanings of "rocket": an ICBM is a missile with rocket engines. A remote camera captures a close-up view of a Space Shuttle Main Engine during a test firing at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi Spacecraft propulsion is used to change the velocity of spacecraft and artificial satellites, or in short, to provide delta-v. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ... A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... A missile (CE pronunciation: ; AmE: ) is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. ... A guided missile is a military rocket that can be directed in flight to change its flight path. ... A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ...

Blunt or sharp

Although blowguns use small darts, most types of guns and firearms hurl bullets, pellets, or shot made of a metal, usually lead, that are designed to deform and fragment inside a target, causing significant damage. Items like arrows, hand darts, and spears are generally tipped with sharp metallic or lithic artifacts called projectile points that allow them to more easily penetrate a target, although some types of arrows used for hunting are designed to stun or kill through shock rather than to penetrate. .357 Magnum cartridges, containing bullets. ... The term shot may refer to: Look up shot on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions (cations) in a cloud of electrons. ... This article is about the chemical element. ... In archaeology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted and used either as knife or projectile tip or both. ...

Projectiles designed to be non-lethal, for example for use against riots, include rubber bullets and flexible baton rounds. Riots occur when crowds of people have gathered and are committing crimes or acts of violence usually due to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. ... Rubber bullets are rubber-coated projectiles fired from guns. ... The flexible baton round is the trademarked name for a type of non-lethal kinetic projectile; it is more widely known as a beanbag round. ...

Kinetic projectiles

Some projectiles do not contain an explosive charge (as opposed to projectiles with explosive charge, such as shells). They are termed kinetic projectile, kinetic energy weapon or kinetic penetrator. The classic kinetic energy weapon is the bullet. Among projectiles which do not contain explosives are railguns, mass drivers, and kinetic energy penetrators, in addition to smaller weapons such as bullets. All of these weapons work by attaining a high muzzle velocity (hypervelocity), and collide with their objective, releasing kinetic energy. A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, is not solid but contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large projectiles without a filling which are properly termed shot. ... .357 Magnum cartridges, containing bullets. ... A railgun is a form of gun that converts electrical energy—rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant—into projectile kinetic energy. ... A mass driver for lunar launch (artists conception) A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a method of spacecraft propulsion that would use a linear motor to accelerate payloads up to high speeds. ... French anti-tank round with its sabot APFSDS at point of separation of sabot. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ... Hypervelocity is usually refered to a very high velocity, such as over 10,000 feet per second. ... // Physical collision Dynamics Deflection happens when an object hits a plane surface In physics, collision means the action of bodies striking or coming together (touching). ... Kinetic energy is energy that a body has as a result of its speed or energy of motion. ...

Some kinetic weapons for targeting objects in spaceflight are anti-satellite weapons and anti-ballistic missiles. Since they need to attain a high velocity anyway, they can destroy their target with their released kinetic energy alone; explosives are not necessary. Compare the energy of TNT, 4.6 MJ/kg, to the energy of a kinetic kill vehicle with a closing speed of 10 km/s, which is 50 MJ/kg. This saves costly weight and there is no detonation to be done at the right time, but on the other hand it requires a more accurate hit. Space exploration is the physical exploration of outer-Earth objects and generally anything that involves the technologies, science, and politics regarding space endeavors. ... Anti-satellite weapons (ASATs) are weapons designed to be used against artificial satellites. ... An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles: a ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear weapons or their elements in a ballistic flight trajectory. ... Trinitrotoluene (TNT, or Trotyl) is a pale yellow crystalline aromatic hydrocarbon compound that melts at 354 K (178 Â°F, 81 °C). ... A weapons cache is detonated at the East River Range on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan Detonation is a process of supersonic combustion that involves a shock wave and a reaction zone behind it. ...

With regard to anti-missile weapons, the Arrow missile and MIM-104 Patriot have explosives, but of the KEI, LEAP, and THAAD being developed, none has (see Missile Defense Agency). Arrow anti-ballistic missile launch The Arrow Interceptor (טיל חץ, Hebrew: Khetz) is a theater missile defense (TMD) system; it is the first missile that was specifically designed and built to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles on a national level. ... Four Patriot missiles like the one shown here can be fired from this mobile launcher between loadings. ... Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD - formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense) is a United States Army project to develop a anti-ballistic_missile defense system, against theater or regional threats. ... The Missile Defense Agency is the section of the United States governments Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles. ...

See also Hypervelocity terminal ballistics, Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). Terminal ballistics, a sub-field of ballistics, is the study of the behavior of a projectile when it hits its target. ... Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) is part of Ronald Reagans Star Wars missile defence concept. ...

A kinetic projectile can be dropped from aircraft. This is applied by replacing the explosives of a regular bomb e.g. by concrete, for a precision hit with less collateral damage. A typical bomb has e.g. a mass of 900 kg and a speed of impact of 800 km/hr (220 m/s). It is also applied for training the act of dropping a bomb with explosives. [1] Collateral damage refers to unintended damage amidst intended damage. ...

A kinetic bombardment may involve a projectile dropped from Earth orbit. For a fictional kinetic weapon, see Relativistic kill vehicle. For the generic concept of attacking a planetary surface from orbit, please see Orbital bombardment Kinetic Bombardment is the act of attacking a planetary surface with inert projectiles from orbit, where the destructive force comes from the kinetic energy of the projectiles impacting at very high velocities. ... A relativistic kill vehicle (RKV) is a hypothetical weapon system sometimes found in science fiction. ...

Typical projectile speeds

See also Orders of magnitude (speed), Muzzle velocity. Speed (symbol: v) is the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change of position, expressed as distance d moved per unit of time t. ... Falling is movement due to gravity. ... Air guns are weapons that propel a bullet using compressed air or another gas, possibly liquefied. ... .357 Magnum cartridges, containing bullets. ... Steel BBs It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with air gun. ... A rifle is a firearm that uses a spiral groove cut into the barrel to spin a projectile (usually a bullet), thus improving accuracy and range of the projectile. ... A Browning 9 millimeter semiautomatic pistol Ordnance pistol of the French Navy, 19th century A pistol or handgun is a usually small firearm that can be used with one hand. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... H&K G36C H&K G36E The Heckler & Koch Gewehr Model 36 (company designation G36, Bundeswehr designation ) is a modular weapon system designed in West Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. ... The light gas gun is a highly specialized gun designed to generate very high velocities. ... Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) is part of Ronald Reagans Star Wars missile defence concept. ... Space debris or orbital debris, also called space junk, are the objects in orbit around Earth created by man that no longer serve any useful purpose. ... A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit in which objects such as satellites are below intermediate circular orbit (ICO) and far below geostationary orbit, but typically around 350 - 1400 km above the Earths surface. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various speed levels between 10−9 m/s and 3 × 108 m/s. ... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ...

Miscellaneous

Ballistics analyses the projectile trajectory, the forces acting upon the projectile, and the impact that a projectile has on a target. A guided missile is not called a projectile. A ballistic body is a body which is free to move, behave, and be modified in appearance, contour, or texture by ambient conditions, substances, or forces, as by the pressure of gases in a gun, by rifling in a barrel, by gravity, by temperature, or by air particles. ... A trajectory is an imagined trace of positions followed by an object moving through space. ... A guided missile is a military rocket that can be directed in flight to change its flight path. ...

An explosion, whether or not by a weapon, causes the debris to act as multiple high velocity projectiles. An explosive weapon, or device may also be designed to produce many high velocity projectiles by the break-up of its casing, these are correctly termed fragments. Fragmentation is a term that occurs in several fields and describes a process of something breaking or being divided into pieces (fragments). ...

The term projectile also refers to weapons or any other objects thrown, shot or otherwise directed to enemies in video games or computer games. A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ... An enemy or foe is a relativist term for an entity that is seen as forcefully adverse or threatening. ...

See also

• Category:Projectiles
• Trajectory of a projectile
• bow (weapon)
• atlatl
• gunpowder
• torpedo