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Frame from 1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit

Matt Rece
Demos
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this demo1 month2009–2023 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as the go-to example of genuine one-million-fps footage and of bullet impact physics.

Ten minutes of ultra-slow-motion footage of bullet impacts filmed at about one million frames per second by Werner Mehl of Kurzzeit. It includes hollow points in ballistics gel and impacts on glass.

“At around 3:00 there is some nice bullet into bulletproof glass action.” (HN, 2009)

1 recommendations · 4 citations · Demos

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@jws Oct 2009 Recommends
on HN thread Bullet Impacts at 1,000,000 fps
Youtube video: direct link... [this video] The watermarked website is a wreck. More than just bullet impacts. At around 2:00 I think it is showing a BB sized object hitting a bullet from a perpendicular trajectory. At around 3:00 there is some nice bullet into bulletproof glass action. 5:50 has shockwave formation in liquids. Back of envelope calculations suggest that most of this is at less than 1,000,000 frames per second, but the slowest of the slow might be at a million.
Direct link with timestamped highlights of bullet impacts and shockwaves.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@jacquesm May 2010 Cites it
on HN thread Mini Cannon Firing and Destroying Targets
The egg splattering on to the keyboard would not happen because there is not enough kinetic energy in that small bullet to make it splash back very far, the lightbulb though for sure put some fragments in to his keyboard because the shards bounce off each other and will cause some shards to go in the opposite direction of where the bullet came from. See here for some more 'bullet impact' video: [this video]
More bullet impact footage offered as supporting example.
@rorrr Dec 2011 Cites it
on HN thread Trillion-frame-per-second video
It sounds like they are taking different phases of the light spreading, and it just looks like the light is traveling. While cool, it's not a true 1 trillion fps camera. Here's true 1 million fps footage: [this video]
Offered as genuine 1 million fps footage for comparison.
@startupfounder Aug 2012 Cites it
on HN thread Photo shows Mars rover descent
True, but if you can do 1m fps on earth[1] and the MRO travels at a speed of 133,879.68 inches/second then you could take 7.4693934 pictures per inch even if you had a rolling "scanning" shutter. I know that would be way to much data for them to process, but for the 172 seconds from parachute deployment to touchdown you could have one amazing high speed film. I am sure NASA can fund a high speed camera for MRO... or do we need to crowdfund that one as well... [1] [this video]
Shows 1 million fps is achievable on earth.

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