Introduction to Ballistics

The study and science of projectile motion is known as ballistics. 

Internal, exterior, and terminal ballistics are 

subcategories of ballistics. 

Although it is strictly a part of internal ballistics, a fourth category intermediate ballistics is occasionally introduced. 

It is concerned with the first motion of the projectile when it exits the muzzle. 

Internal ballistics is concerned with the bullet’s travel through the gun’s barrel. 

The terminology switches to exterior ballistics at the point of exit from the muzzle, a highly complex area that necessitates a thorough understanding of physics and higher mathematics.

 The study of terminal ballistics begins when a projectile collides with a surface, whether it is human tissue, wood, masonry, or glass.

The behaviour of a bullet when it collides with skin, muscle, bone, or viscera is determined by a number of factors.

The shape, size, weight, and velocity of the bullet are all important elements in influencing the degree and severity of trauma.

Ballistics has been studied for ages by students at various levels of intellectual competence. The work of mathematicians and physicists such as Bernoulli, Newton, Lagrange, and others can be applied to many ballistics fields. Without any official schooling, James Paris Lee designed his first weapon, the Enfield Rifle, when he was just 12 years old. Field experimentation and equipment testing are required after any design for three reasons:

1.Ballistic events are stochastic in nature.

2.the unlimited number of possible scenarios in which a gun-projectile-charge combination can be used

3.a lack of comprehension of the phenomenon

The enormous number of parameters that affect muzzle velocity, starting yaw, and flight behaviour contribute to the stochastic behaviour that pervades all ballistic disciplines. Even if we believe we understand the influence of each parameter individually, when all of the parameters are combined, the problem becomes intractable.

A gun, projectile, and charge combination can be subjected to an endless number of battlefield test situations. You can’t test every possible scenario.

It may appear that a lack of comprehension of events is exaggerated, but it is genuine.