Balls, as it were
- Thread starter Tom Tom
- Start date
Air density
Since cold air is more dense than warm air, it would follow that, in theory, the paintballs should shoot faster. I know that at the Bonneville Salt Flats the racers prefer hot weather to cooler weather for top-speed runs.
Since cold air is more dense than warm air, it would follow that, in theory, the paintballs should shoot faster. I know that at the Bonneville Salt Flats the racers prefer hot weather to cooler weather for top-speed runs.
I don't think that there is one right answere for this question. different temps will effect different balls differently. This means as we all know that not every shell is the same and not every fill is the same and now some paint companys are making cold weather specifice balls.
Now for the physics. (I hate it when people make me pretend to be smart)
Temperature is basicaly a mesure of energy. Cold air is more dense and has less partical motion i.e. less turbulance. Warm air is less dense but has more partical motion i.e. more turbulance. On the surface this looks like cold weather would give you less range with greater accurace and the opposit for warm weather but this is not really the case.
The increased turbulance with warm air will decrease your range and the increassed density of cold air will decrease accurace do to the ball haveing to push through "harder" air creating a more turbulant pocket of air behind the ball. This means that the differnt effects of air tubulance with counter act any benifit that is gained by different temperatures.
Now for the physics. (I hate it when people make me pretend to be smart)
Temperature is basicaly a mesure of energy. Cold air is more dense and has less partical motion i.e. less turbulance. Warm air is less dense but has more partical motion i.e. more turbulance. On the surface this looks like cold weather would give you less range with greater accurace and the opposit for warm weather but this is not really the case.
The increased turbulance with warm air will decrease your range and the increassed density of cold air will decrease accurace do to the ball haveing to push through "harder" air creating a more turbulant pocket of air behind the ball. This means that the differnt effects of air tubulance with counter act any benifit that is gained by different temperatures.
Like you said, this is a tough one. From a theoretical standpoint, I still believe that the turbulance behind the ball would play less of a role than the actual drag on the the ball. If you take a look at the link, you can see the formula for the coefficeint of drag(cd). If you increase the density(as in colder air), you in turn increase the drag on the ball. Therefore, just by looking at the formula, it would seem that colder air, since it is more dense, will slow the ball. Keep in mind that this is all theoretical, and that we all know damn well that it is hard to prove. I'd rather just pull the trigger: Ignorance is Bliss 
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/dragco.html
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/dragco.html
Dogbert if your shootin 75 yard with your paintball gun I think you should report directly to the chrono!!!