How does a gun silencer work? It seems the noisy part would be on the back of the gun where the hammer hits the bullet, not where the bullet exits. (I know nothing about guns)
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Sound is nothing more than a rapid change in pressure. Guns propel bullets through the use of an explosion, which can be poorly described as a very large rapid change in pressure. The actual mechanical operation of the gun isn’t very loud and the majority of the sound is from the open end after the bullet stops plugging the hole.
The way suppressors work is by extending the amount of time it takes for that rapid change in pressure to reach the open air, usually through a series of baffles that gives a longer path for the gasses to escape through. This makes the rapid change in pressure a little less rapid and because it takes longer a little less strong. This makes it quieter.
Also note that the bullet travelling through the air also makes noise and a lot of ammunition is “supersonic” – that is, it travels faster than the speed of sound. This causes an extremely loud shockwave all on its own, necessitating the use of special low-velocity “subsonic” ammunition if you’re going to use a suppressor.
There are precious few guns that can be suppressed down to hollywood quiet. Most can only manage to be suppressed down from “you must wear hearing protection” to “you could probably get away with not using hearing protection but you probably still should because it’s still quite loud”
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