From: "David K. Merriman" <merriman@metronet.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 94 22:01:06 PDT
To: Mikolaj Habryn <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Nuclear Weapons Material
Message-ID: <Chameleon.4.00.940825235956.merriman@anybody.metronet.com.metronet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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>> I don't know much about modern munitions, but I do know that armor
>> piercing rounds may have no charge in them at all.  Generally, when a
>> round pierces one side of a vehicle, it loses enough energy and is
>> suitably deformed to prevent exit from the opposite wall.  It does,
>> however, bounce around quite a bit, which can be plenty of fun in a
>> tank loaded with equipment, munitions, and soldiers.
>
>	I was under the impression that the most common techniquoe for
>creating armour-piercing munitions was to use shaped-charges. While
>depleted uranium has it's uses (being, as someone said, rather dense),
>mass alone will not get through everything. A shaped charge will get
>through more things more violently :)
>

And in the process, vaporize a signifcant amount of metal - effectively 
depositing a few microns (at minimum) of metal plating on everything inside 
the AFV (including passenger's lungs, skin, etc).  My first choice would be 
not to be present for *either* event; far distant second choice would be 
taking my chances with riccochets.

Dave Merriman
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