What Would Happen to Humans Fired from a Cannon?

Thread starter Tiger Blood
Start date Mar 26, 2017
Tags

Acceleration

Click For Summary

SUMMARY

Firing humans from a cannon, as depicted in Jules Verne's "From Earth to the Moon," would result in fatal consequences due to extreme acceleration. A cannon with a length of 1 km would require an acceleration of approximately 3000 g, which exceeds human structural integrity. The discussion emphasizes that such forces would lead to immediate physical trauma and death, making the concept impractical and dangerous.

PREREQUISITES

Understanding of basic physics principles, particularly acceleration and force.
Knowledge of human anatomy and structural limits.
Familiarity with the concept of g-forces and their effects on the human body.
Awareness of historical context regarding Jules Verne's works and their scientific implications.

NEXT STEPS

Research the effects of high g-forces on the human body.
Explore the physics of projectile motion and acceleration.
Investigate safety measures in high-acceleration environments, such as those used in aerospace engineering.
Study the historical accuracy of Jules Verne's scientific predictions and their relevance today.

USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for physics enthusiasts, aerospace engineers, safety researchers, and fans of science fiction literature who are interested in the intersection of science and imaginative concepts.

Mar 26, 2017

Tiger Blood

Are there maybe pictures of what would happen with humans if they were fired from a cannon like in Jules Verne's "From Earth to the Moon"?

Science news on Phys.org

Mar 26, 2017

mfb

Mentor

Insights Author

Those pictures wouldn't be suitable for this forum.
A 1 km gun would need an acceleration of about 3000 g. Humans don't have the structural integrity to survive that.

Mar 26, 2017

Vanadium 50

Staff Emeritus

Science Advisor

Education Advisor

Gold Member

Dearly Missed

Roughly like this:

Thread 'Some thoughts about self-education'

I deeply respect people who are engaged in self-education. Nevertheless the problem of self-education is as follows. A person reads textbooks and forms his own opinion about what he has read. Then he tries to solve a problem and faces the fact that his answer is not equal to the one in the end of the book. Then he goes to specialists and asks them what the story is. He expects that specialists will help him to solve the problem and they will do that by using his own understandings and...

View full post »