btrettel's Nerf blog

random thoughts about the ballistics of foam darts

Archive for April, 2011

My challenge to Nerf rifling believers

Posted by btrettel on April 17, 2011

Do you believe most Nerf darts can be made more stable by spinning? If so, this challenge is for you!

The challenge is simple: Provide objective and statistically significant evidence that spinning darts improves stability, precision, or range.

Some notes

Rifling barrels for Nerf has already been thoroughly debunked. To say it in brief, the vast majority of Nerf darts are already stable, so they  have nothing to gain by spinning. In fact, they have a lot to lose, and this is often ignored by rifling believers.

So far, rifling believers have singularly failed to provide strong evidence to support their claims. Whenever they do, their results are shown to actually not be statistically different than what you would expect from smoothbores.

Also, tests are very often completely subjective. The results of many tests are simply “it looked better.” A subjective test like examining the dart’s trajectory could potentially be useful, but only when the experiment is properly designed. The tests must be blinded to have any shred of objectivity.

I don’t care how the spinning is done as long as the darts can be verified to be spinning too.

Posted in Exterior ballistics, Misconceptions | Leave a Comment »

Nerf Engineering forum

Posted by btrettel on April 7, 2011

The Nerf Engineering forum is now open. I’m receptive to suggestions, so let me know at the forum if you have any ideas, especially with regard to its organization.

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Temporary NerfHaven archive

Posted by btrettel on April 6, 2011

I have made a temporary NerfHaven archive for those who wish to browse threads while NH is down.

Also, would anyone be interested in a small forum for this blog? I am thinking I’d like to discuss some topics not typically covered at Nerf forums, like, for example, “concept” threads (where the merits of a concept are discussed), ballistic modeling, engineering, and advanced pneumatic Nerf guns. I basically just want a place where like-minded folks can discuss some things not typically covered elsewhere.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

NerfHaven hack 2011

Posted by btrettel on April 1, 2011

There has been much speculation about what precisely is going on at NerfHaven recently. The problems at NH are not an April Fools’ joke. The forum software NH uses is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, and based on the available evidence, it seems that a hacker decided to gets some kicks by screwing with NH.

I should remind my readers that something similar happened back in 2006, and NH is still running fine. If you are truly paranoid, you can download every thread at NH as of March 30st here.

The problems will be remedied by cx once he has the time. Please be patient until then. I suggest changing your password to something that you do not use on any other websites in the meantime, as the hacker could potentially decrypt bad passwords with the access he has right now. This, of course, is unlikely, but if you are security-conscious, it’s a good idea.

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