www.ditl.org

I watched this episode again the other day, and a question struck me. Is bamboo strong enough to contain and direct an explosion of gunpowder??? For the first time, I wondered why the thing didn't blow up in Kirk's hand. It SHOULD have exploded in all directions I would think. That's the reason guns were made out of metal.

Am I wrong???

It was a substance that looked like bamboo, so it can be easily argued the alien plant was strong enough to shoot it.

In any case, I found these articles online concerning Chinese bamboo guns:

http://books.google.com/books?id=hNcZJ3 ... &ct=result

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gun_barrel

So there is some real world fact to back up Kirk's use of a gun barrel. Still not sure about the chemistry, though. I thought saltpeter, a primary component of black powder, was gotten from fermented urine and feces.

The Bamboo should hold, its pretty strong, I would be more worried about the bindings.

Given that it was found on an alien world, I'm pretty sure it's not bamboo.

It would depend on the composition of the powder, too. Given the need to have diamonds, rather than run-of-the-mill rocks, I'd say that all involved knew that the makeshift powder didn't have the same capacity for expansive force as "typical" black powder.

Hey, this sounds exactly like a job for the Mythbusters!

Anybody know how to contact them?

ETA : I found it, but you have to register first. Hmmm.

So register, or is it costly?

No, I'm just careful about who I give my details to

Got it, It's good to be like that, I only give my info to people I trust, why do I give info to Microsoft then?

Mark wrote:I watched this episode again the other day, and a question struck me. Is bamboo strong enough to contain and direct an explosion of gunpowder??? For the first time, I wondered why the thing didn't blow up in Kirk's hand. It SHOULD have exploded in all directions I would think. That's the reason guns were made out of metal.

Am I wrong???

You don't have to use a metal gun barrel. The Mythbusters made a canon out of a bored out log. Explosions take the path of least resistance, ie: most of the energy will head out to open space, hence the need to tamp demo charges. It's just a question of the barrel material being able to handle the stress of what doesn't head out, I have no problem with Kirk's weapon though I suspect it was a one shot deal.

My apologies if the above makes no sense, seem to be having trouble getting my thoughts in order.

Makes perfect sense. Keep those thoughts out of order as much as you can.

Yeah......we might just start to worry if we DO find them in order one day.

Two minor things. Kirk reinforced the back end of his cannon by wrapping a vine-rope thing around it. And when he fired it, the front end split and splayed open all the way around, so it was definitely a one shot deal.

GrahamKennedy wrote:Two minor things. Kirk reinforced the back end of his cannon by wrapping a vine-rope thing around it. And when he fired it, the front end split and splayed open all the way around, so it was definitely a one shot deal.

Little far up the barrel for that:




Look where's putting the touchhole, and in a later shot he uses it as a handguard. There's not much point in using it as a reinforcement if it's not over the part where the actual explosion is.

One-shot for sure though, in a later shot after he fires, it's blown in half.

It's further forward than I thought, but look at the line around the barrel just below where he's scratching through it - that's where the gunpowder is, right? So the rope reinforcement is not that far ahead of it.