Welcome back all!  In last week’s episode we talked about external ballistics, and the forces that affect a projectile in flight.  We also talked about those same projectiles flying around on Mars, in outer space, and on planets made of bubblegum.  This week we’ll discuss stability of a projectile, and the things we can do to limit the effect those forces have on the projectile’s flight.

So what can we do to help them out? obviously we want to hit our target and Mother Nature (or other resident natural deity on whatever sci-fi world you’re writing) is doing her damnedest to make sure we miss.  We have to find some way stabilizing our projectile, to make it less susceptible to outside forces.  Here’s what would happen if we fired a projectile with no means of improving stability, as it flies, minute disturbances and inequalities in forces applied cause it to tumble.  This video comes from YouTube user vidaday, and is awesome.

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