The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. It is used in common text. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem. The term originates from folklore. Traditionally, the silver bullet is the only kind of bullet for firearms that is effective against a witch, vampire, monster, or a person living a charmed life. Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, material culture, and so forth, common to a particular population, comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. ... .357 Magnum cartridges, containing bullets A bullet is a solid projectile propelled by a firearm and is normally made from metal (usually lead). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is part of the Witchcraft series. ... Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire, 1897 This article deals with vampires in folklore and legends. ...

The best known magical creature which is vulnerable to a silver bullet is a werewolf, the werewolf's vulnerability to silver actually dates back to the legend of The Beast of Gévaudan in which a gigantic Wolf is killed by a person wielding a gun loaded with silver bullets. As a more modern popular culture example, the Lone Ranger also used silver bullets. Functionally, though slightly lighter than lead, pure silver is an adequate bullet material, being hard enough to resist scuffing in a gun bore at high velocity, unlike lead. The terminal effects are not unlike a full-metal jacketed bullet, however, a sliver bullet will tend not to fragment or deform even at rifle velocities, and would tend to over-penetrate. Because of its higher melting tempreature and hardness, it requires more sophisticated casting and forming techniques than lead for quality bullets. Crude bullets can be cast in a pinch, but need about 1800F. (bright orange hot) to get good flow for casting. The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical, paranormal or supernatural means. ... A German woodcut from 1722 A werewolf (also lycanthrope or wolfman) in folklore and mythology is a person who shapeshifts into a wolf or wolflike creature, either purposely, by using magic, or after being placed under a curse. ... Popular culture, or pop culture, (literally: the culture of the people) consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

In different traditions, silver is thought to be the metal associated with the moon and with the human soul. It is likely that these associations have contributed to the legend of the silver bullet. General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... Apparent magnitude: up to -12. ... The soul, acording to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self-aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. ...

Some have seen such apparently miraculous drugs as salvarsan and penicillin as "silver bullets". Arsphenamine is a drug that was used to treat syphilis and trypanosomiasis. ... Penicillin nucleus Penicillin (sometimes abbreviated PCN) refers to a group of β-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms. ...

Experts often use the term more cynically to dampen unreasonable expectations. Doctors, for example, will often readily characterise the latest fad diet as "no silver bullet." Food faddism and fad diet are terms which refer to the tendency for idiosyncratic diets and eating patterns. ... Measuring body weight on a scale Dieting is the practice of eating (and drinking) in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular, short-term objective. ...

It has been said that Jan Potocki, author of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, shot himself with a silver bullet because he believed, perhaps under the influence of syphilitic madness, that he was becoming a werewolf. Noble Family Potocki Coat of Arms PiÅ‚awa Parents StanisÅ‚aw Potocki Anna Teresa OssoliÅ„ska Consorts Julia Lubomirska Konstancja Potocka Children with Julia Lubomirska Alfred Wojciech Potocki Artur Potocki with Konstancja Potocka Bernard Potocki Irena Potocka Teresa Potocka Date of Birth March 3, 1761 Place of Birth Leżajsk... The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (original French title Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse, also known in English as Saragossa Manuscript), by the Polish author Jan Potocki (1761-1815), is a frame tale novel from the period of the Napoleonic Wars. ... Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum. ... A German woodcut from 1722 A werewolf (also lycanthrope or wolfman) in folklore and mythology is a person who shapeshifts into a wolf or wolflike creature, either purposely, by using magic, or after being placed under a curse. ...

A Silver Bullet is also slang for a martini cocktail because it "is clear, potent and never misses its mark," but this usage is on the decline. The martini is a cocktail made with gin and dry white vermouth. ...

The term was also a nickname for sabot cannon shells used by American tank crews during the first Gulf War due to the round's ability to destroy Iraqi tanks with one shot. A Phalanx Mk149 APDS discarding its sabot and petals Armor-piercing, discarding sabot (APDS) is a type of kinetic energy projectile fired from a gun to attack heavy armor. ... Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf Peter de la Billière Khalid bin Sultan Saleh Al-Muhaya Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Saddam Hussein Strength 883,863 360,000 Casualties 378 dead, 1,000 wounded 250,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February...

Silver bullet is a key metaphor of Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play, The Emperor Jones. Brutus Jones, ex-Pullman Porter, has fostered the illusion among the superstitious folk of the island of which he has become "emperor" that he himself can only be killed by a silver bullet. He himself has forged such a bullet just in case he is eventually faced with the necessity of committing suicide. Instead, the natives revolt, Jones sets out to escape but becomes lost within himself, in the maze of his own darkness, before being struck by the silver bullet of the natives. Eugene Gladstone ONeill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. ... The Emperor Jones is a play by Eugene ONeill which tells the tale of an African-American man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a Caribbean island, and sets himself up as its dictator and emperor. ... The interior of a Pullman car on the Chicago and Alton Railroad circa 1900. ... A porter is a railroad employee assigned to assist passengers aboard a passenger train or to handle their baggage; it may be used particularly to refer to employees assigned to assisting passengers in the sleeping cars. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the willful act of killing oneself. ...

See also

Look up silver bullet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Magic bullet
• Golden hammer
• No Silver Bullet
• Software Engineering: No silver bullet

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Magic bullet has several meanings and uses: It is used disparagingly by conspiracy theorists to describe the projectile which the Warren Commission concluded under its single bullet theory to have hit both President John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally. ... A golden hammer is any tool, technology, paradigm, snake oil, buzzword or similar whose proponents enthusiastically sing its praises. ... No Silver Bullet - essence and accidents of software engineering is a well-known paper on software engineering written by Fred Brooks in 1986. ... Bold textItalic text Software engineering has evolved steadily from its founding days in the 1940s until today in the 2000s. ...

External links

• Real Silver Bullets
• More on the confusion between silver bullet and magic bullet here
• Another site on Silver Bullets