Why is the barrel size important for the muzzle velocity and the range?
In: Engineering
By size do you mean caliber (diameter) or the length of the barrel.
For the caliber it doesn’t directly matter. A bigger caliber mean a large round, but you can have a large caliber with a small case like a pistol 9mm. The small case pack a small quantity of propellant so the bullet won’t travel fast or far. On top of that the 9mm bulllet is large in caliber, but small in lenght so it’s not particularly heavy compare to smaller caliber bullet that are longer and have more mass.
But you probably mean the lenght of the barrel when you talk about size. The reason a longer barrel increase velocity and range is because the gas from the explosion have more time to push the bullet through the barrel, once the bullet leave the barrel the pressure equilibrate with the atmosphere and no longer transfer it’s energy to the bullet. It work up to a certain point at which the gas no longer have enough pressure to compensate for the friction in the barrel, so if you barrel is too long it might start to decrease the velocity and range of your bullet, but you need a really long barrel for that to happen.
A very common misconception is that a longer barrel also increase accuracy or precision and that is just not the case, it simply increase the velocity and range.
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