# Can you swat a bullet out of the air? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228 "2006-10-20T15:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Phantom\_Dennis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@Phantom\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phantom_Dennis)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/21 "2006-10-20T19:14:53Z")
There’s a video out on the net somewhere that looks pretty legit – it shows a pistol mounted in a brace, firing a bullet into the edge of a katana (also mounted in a brace). It’s filmed in slow motion, and you can see the bullet strike the blade and split in two, with each half tumbling away at a roughly 30-degree angle from the sword, transcribing a Y-shaped path if viewed from overhead. Lead and copper are very soft metals, and katana steel is notoriously hard, so the physics seem plausible (to me, anyway). So I guess a samurai with sufficiently quick reflexes could dodge bullets simply by splitting them and allowing the two halves to pass on either side of his body. You could probably make this look really cool on film… ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/22 "2006-10-20T19:18:57Z")
[QUOTE=Phantom Dennis] You could probably make this look really cool on film… [/QUOTE] Ooooh! Especially if the bullet halves dum-dumed two thugs who were sneaking up on hero! Okay, I don’t make films. But if I did they’d have a Samurai. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/23 "2006-10-20T19:25:51Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] How hard would you have to karate-chop a 125 grain 9mm jacketed hollowpoint round travelling at 1200 fps in order to alter its vector by 45 degrees? And could the average human deliver such a blow, assuming it could be timed right? [/QUOTE] Well that’s simple. By geometry, he’d have to impart a sufficent force to give a normal component of velocity of 1200fps. Assuming that he has to do so in 0.0001 seconds (since we’re talking about the edge of the hand we’ll use a 1" wide surface), we look at the impulse: I = mΔv = FΔt Rearranging: F = mΔv/Δt = 5.55x10[sup]-4[/sup] slug x 1200 f/s x (0.0001 sec)[sup]-1[/sup] = 6.66kip. (We’re neglecting the affect of air resistance for the obvious reason that between the gigantic rule-of-thumb approximations we’re making here and the improbability of the entire situation the amount of influence drag will have is a nonce. Also, the 666 figure is entirely coincidental and has nothing to do with any marked beasts, Pat Robertson aside.) So, about three tons of force (just shy of 30kN for you sensible people out there who use a consistant system of units). Less angle obviously requires less force as a function of the sine of the angle; a 30° divergence, for instance, would only require 0.71 \* 6.66kip = 4.71kip. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/24 "2006-10-20T19:54:05Z")
Mostly off-topic, but I had a guy, in a roleplaying campaign I ran, make a gun-slinger type character, and one of his schticks was shooting bullets out of the air with his own gun. I think that would make for a cool visual. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/25 "2006-10-20T19:57:43Z")
So the superhuman feat in this [movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089461/) isn’t possible? Good thing I never tried it. In the movie, the hero catched a bullet fired at him with his teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/26 "2006-10-20T19:59:10Z")
The word in the spoiler should be catches, and not catched. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/27 "2006-10-20T21:31:35Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Just to explain, no, is too much, let me sum up: [/QUOTE] Wow, it’s been a long week. I read that line and thought, hey I’ve heard that before. I even heard it with an accent when I read it. I then realized the movie from which it was quoted, then I realized the person that said it. I looked at the OP :smack: I’m going home ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/28 "2006-10-20T22:14:29Z")
[QUOTE=gabriela] Many years ago I was assisting in the ER and I went over to see a guy who was looking through his hand. Through where the knuckle used to be. [/QUOTE] I cannot imagine a bullet removing the knuckle without also removing the adjacent digit. In the unlikely event that enough tissue remained to connect the finger, and further remained on both sides of the missing knuckle, the finger would still flop unsupported into the palm and make hole gazing difficult at best. ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/29 "2006-10-20T22:44:50Z")
Morihei Ueshiba the founder of Akido talked about dodging bullets as solder in his youth, not that I believe in some type of force that will change the laws nature in a useful and demonstrable way but he sort of lived the Jedi lifestyle,as least in his head that is. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/30 "2006-10-21T00:29:06Z")
[QUOTE=bluezooky] Morihei Ueshiba the founder of Akido talked about dodging bullets as solder in his youth, not that I believe in some type of force that will change the laws nature in a useful and demonstrable way but he sort of lived the Jedi lifestyle,as least in his head that is. [/QUOTE] Talk is cheap. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/31 "2006-10-21T02:50:13Z")
You can’t catch bullets, and you can’t deflect them with your bare hands. You can theoretically dodge bullets if you have good vision, good reflexes and you have a good view of the gun and the shooter. Most people at a good distance take some time to fire, they’re breathing, their hands are shaking, they’ve just been chasing you through a field. Chances of them hitting you get exponentially lower the farther you are. And that’s with a rifle. I wouldn’t really trust even LEO or military to hit anything with a sidearm at any considerable distance in a situation where they are not prepared for it or just happened to be really good or really lucky. So the best way to dodge pistol bullets is to move about 300 ft away and dance a jig. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/32 "2006-10-21T03:32:27Z")
The bullet has to travel two feet, from the point where I can hit it, to my head, where it is presumably aimed. If I can hit it with enough force to move the bullet three inches during the two one thousandths of a second that it takes to move from two feet away to hit my face, it will miss. Hitting the bullet does not take superhuman speed; it takes a supreme understanding of the nature of the attack, and attacker, and very precise timing. Assuming I move my head a tiny bit, and my arm a great deal faster, I might even reduce the amount I have to deflect the path of the bullet to two inches. So, how hard do I have to hit it to move it two inches in .002 seconds? One twelfth of a foot in two thousandth of a second, is eighty three and a third feet per second, or about 57 miles an hour. That is hardly superhuman. Even without the head movement, it’s only about 85 miles an hour. “Batter up!” Jack is wrong. It’s all in the technique. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/33 "2006-10-21T03:34:57Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Only if one is from Themyscira, and suitably acessorised. [/QUOTE] 'Bout time someone referenced the bracelets! ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/34 "2006-10-21T03:43:32Z")
Glee Having studied martial arts, yoga and mediation for over twenty years I intend to take up James Randi’s offer of one million dollars at the earliest opportunity it’s just that I’ve yet to come up with anything “useful and demonstrable” ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/35 "2006-10-21T04:07:10Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] By geometry, he’d have to impart a sufficent force to give a normal component of velocity of 1200fps. [/QUOTE] Obviously he’s not going to be able to do that. Swatting with his palm (10 cm) the jedi has 0.27 msec in which to deflect the (1200 fps, 36576 cm/sec) bullet. A good baseball pitcher can throw at about 90mph, or 4023 cm/sec. Over the course of 0.27 msec, his hand will thus move about 1.08 cm. That’d give a deflection of about 6 degrees. I think he’d still hurt his hand badly. ---
**Author:** ![stevesmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@stevesmith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stevesmith)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/36 "2006-10-21T04:09:25Z")
Quick note on the frying pan deflection. It was already done in the TV series “Kung Fu” with David Carridine (sp?). A hired gun was firing and our hero deflected all the bullets from one gun by matching the pan position with the gun aim. After the gunslinger emptied the first gun, he did a fancy draw and hand transfer with the other gun (stereotypical image). Kane was on him and snatched the gun away in mid-air. Kane then blocked the attempted punch with the frying pan breaking a few bones. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/37 "2006-10-21T16:13:59Z")
[QUOTE=The Controvert] The hero would also get one heck of a friction burn. [/QUOTE] Bullets are also pretty damn hot so those burns might not just be friction. ---
**Author:** ![cmurdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@cmurdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmurdough)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/38 "2006-10-21T18:54:40Z")
When I was a teenager and ninjas became a common movie theme, someone told me that one branch or martial arts (or maybe it was an order of monks that studied martial arts) included “Iron Hand.” Supposedly, masters of the discipline built-up calluses on their hands over months or years and then could stop small caliber bullets with their bare hands. I think the idea wasn’t to stop the bullets dead-on, but to try and sideswipe them and deflect them. Probably just an urban legend, but it seemed relevant to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/39 "2006-10-21T19:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=Waverly] I cannot imagine a bullet removing the knuckle without also removing the adjacent digit. In the unlikely event that enough tissue remained to connect the finger, and further remained on both sides of the missing knuckle, the finger would still flop unsupported into the palm and make hole gazing difficult at best. [/QUOTE] Well, you and I probably have different definitions of the layman’s word “knuckle”. I didn’t mean “the entire metacarpophalangeal joint”. I meant “the third metacarpal head”, which allows for more than enough supporting tissue around the palm. The finger flop was dorsal - that is, backwards. And the hole wasn’t large enough to admit a pencil. I dunno if you’re envisaging a hole so large his whole eye could see through it. More like it admitted light. Likely it came from an underpowered bullet like a .22 or .25 - I didn’t know from bullets then, so wouldn’t have understood or remembered. But it was real and I saw it. I do remember that not long after I spent five minutes staring at the fellow’s hand, a little Asian man came into the ER and rolled a machine up to another patient’s gurney and said in a soft falsetto voice, “I’m shooting,” and nurses and doctors turned and ran everywhere. I was sure I was gonna die. I was wrong. He was shooting X-rays. They were approaching their exposure limits as shown by their film badges… ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228/40 "2006-10-22T03:24:37Z")
Hey, if Wonder Woman can do it, so can you. You just need to don those [cool](http://www.starnet-database.com/dbase_deo/profiles/wonder_woman/Bracelets.jpg) [bracelets](http://www.splash-color.com/misc/wonderwoman.jpg)… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swat-a-bullet-out-of-the-air/377228.md?page=3)