But would the proposed higher velocities used means the ball deforms more or less when accelerated?
If forces increase then so will deformation experienced if that force increase is applied in the same circumstances.
One other thing re this thread and for the more scientific in our forum community, it might serve us well to formalise all components of a paintball being fired in terms of forces.
For the sake of Chris (Chicago) I'll go medieval physics on yer ass and formalise a typical paintball being fired.
Firstly, we would all agree we live in a universe whereby the law of conservation is upheld, OK Chris ... you live in this universe??
Cool, glad to hear it mate ....
Let's first of all set out all the forces [energy] inside the barrel that come into play when a paintball is fired:-
We have the force of the expanding gas behind the paintball.
We have the inertial mass of paintball.
We have the frictional forces associated with a paintball in a barrel.
Both frictional and inertial forces will be apparent and active in the opposite direction to the expansion force of the gas.
We know that force = mass x acceleration but we need to understand exactly how all the forces interact and transform from the point of pulling that trigger.
We can for the sake of this example forget the energy loss due to temperature rise and sound energy loss and focus upon the major energy issues of gas expansion, acceleration of paintball and ........... deformation??
I put question marks after the word 'deformation' for Chris and no other...well, no other who possess a brain that harbours a basic knowledge of Newtonian and Boyleian physics.
As soon as the trigger is pulled and the gas is allowed to expand in the breech, the pressure (force) behind the paintball will exert its influence on the back face of the paintball.
Initially, the paintball will not move because of its inertial mass and the effect of friction which can be thought of as a force in the opposite direction to the force of pressure.
Once the gas pressure [force] has built up to a point where it equals that of the frictional force in the opposite direction and that of the inertial force of the paintball itself, any further increase in pressure will begin to accelerate the paintball forward.
This rate of acceleration will be dependent upon the forces already mentioned, that of the pressure, the inertial and frictional forces of the paintball.
We can effectively ignore the energy transformations to heat and sound and we can concentrate on looking at the force on the back-face of the paintball.
As the pressure increases to its maximum, we can consider the force being experienced on that back-face of the paintball.
To get an idea of the nature of this force, or rather a handle on its magnitude, we have to acknowledge that it will accelerate this paintball to something approaching 200 mph and launch the frikkin thing something approaching 80 meters (wind and trajectory permitting).
And so, when we look at that maximum force being applied to the back of that paintball, we get some idea of its order of magnitude.
If we now consider the following, if that paintball was a perfect fit in the barrel, and that same paintball was artificially stuck fast so it couldn't be moved, we can easily imagine that maximum force of the pressurized gas being bought to bear on that back face, I know it's not like this in practice but that's not the point here.
The point is, this force will tend to deform the back face of the paintball because the front face has no such pressurising force and it is this differential that is the reason this back face tends toward deformation.
In this situation, it's hardly surprising the back-face is gonna tend toward deformation when the ball is stuck fast.
If you think about, we have that maximum force being applied to the back face and the only thing countering that force is the integrity of the back-face structure of that paintball.
If we now allow the ball to become unstuck, it will begin to accelerate away down the barrel but this ability to move does NOT negate the fact that back-face tended toward deformation, all it does is raise a question to the degree of deformation and how long that back-face experienced that deforming force.
Chris is suggesting there is no such deforming force (and therefore no deformation) which is absurd and insults everybody who has a basic knowledge of physics.