[LMB] OT: Talking of Rocket Ship Galileo

[Mark Allums]

Joel Polowin wrote:
> Mark Allums  wrote:
>> Joel Polowin wrote:
>>> Is *that* of any great benefit, in a vacuum? Apart from making
>>> sure that the bullet hits the target pointy-end-first? And is it
>>> sufficient even for that, in a vacuum? (Not too sure about the
>>> Dynamics of an Asteroid, or even of a rapidly-spinning slug.)
>> In vacuum? Hmmm.... I believe yes. The bullet will kind of bounce back
>> and forth in the barrel without rifling, and this would mess up the
>> aiming. Gyroscopic stability can't *hurt* anything, and it might help.
> 
> I'm wondering if it would be sufficient.  Some asteroids tumble
> chaotically, but I'm not sure what the conditions are which cause
> that -- precession is part of it, I think.  Bullets from a rifle would be
> spinning around a long axis, and my gut feeling is that that would
> be less stable than around a short axis... but I don't trust my gut
> feelings on this.

It would be stable enough until in ricocheted, then it would tumble. 
The differentce is, a tumbling bullet in air loses energy very quickly, 
in vacuum, it would not matter.

--MArk Allums