What is a bulletproof vest made of & how does that stop a massively fast bullet?
In: Technology
Usually they’re a Kevlar fabric containing sheets of lead with thin ceramic plates in front.
Kevlar resists being punctured and spreads the force out through the entire fabric. Ceramic converts kinetic energy into the ceramic turning to powder, slowing the projectile. And lead… is really dense. It just stops things from going any further, which works really well in combination with the Kevlar.
[edit] the truck is that while bullets have a lot of kinetic energy, they don’t have much mass — so a sheet of lead often has enough stopping power by itself to pancake the projectile, spreading the kinetic force out through accelerating the inertial state of the entire lead plate.
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