btrettel's Nerf blog

random thoughts about the ballistics of foam darts

Goals for the end of 2011

Posted by btrettel on November 19, 2011

I’ve been too busy to accomplish what I want to in this hobby, but I do have a few plans for the end of this year:

  • I will write a NerfHaven article about misconceptions in Nerf physics. I have already written a few things along these lines. The goal here is to make a summary of many misconceptions.
  • I will write another NerfHaven article about basic theoretical ballistic engineering. The point here is to offer those with a high-school algebra background some equations they can use to design Nerf (or even potato) guns. Whenever possible I’ll try to offer empirical data to compare to and calibrate these models.
  • I will buy a drill press, a vise, and some other tools so that I will have my own machine shop.

Early next year I hope to finish an initial version of my Lagrangian gas gun simulation (LGGS). This is mean mostly for spud gun work, but I’ll use it for Nerf too.

I also have some plans for FANG 4, but I will not start FANG 4 until after LGGS is functional. This is after when I had hoped to finish FANG 4, but that’s fine. I complete things as I can. I have already detailed some of my plans for FANG 4 on the Nerf Engineering forum.

3 Responses to “Goals for the end of 2011”

  1. Mark said

    Up to anything new, Ben?

  2. btrettel said

    Lately, no. But in the past few months I’ve worked on a few theoretical things and I hope to keep that up this summer. Before I looked at time for a dart to reach a target and compared this against a person’s typical response time. This, I think, is more important than range in most situations.

    I am working in Los Alamos, NM, this summer and I do not have access to my tools, so I won’t make anything physical until the fall. But I intend to pump out a Nerf gun or two then.

  3. Mark said

    Good for you and good to hear. I also find myself thinking rather than building lately. I hope to change that soon.

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