Heavier than Lead

Speaking of weight.

How can this be? Some new shotgun ammunition using non-toxic shot can and does claim to be heavier than lead. Bismuth proved unpopular, but it does have an atomic weight higher than lead. The brand Hevi-shot also claims to be heavier than lead. In this case the shot is made of something that has a lower atomic weight than lead. Yet the claim stands.

How can this be?

NO LOOKING IT UP and please use spoiler tags.

Atomic weight and density are not the same thing.

Quote: odiousgambit

The brand Hevi-shot also claims to be heavier than lead.

The phrase "heavier than lead" is a marketing slogan. Given that there is only so much volume in a shotgun, they are saying that the fixed volume is heavier than lead. Scientifically, they mean it is "denser than lead".

Hevi-shot is an alloy of three principal materials, all of which have a lower atomic weight than lead.

Quote: odiousgambit

Bismuth proved unpopular

It looks like Bismuth is very expensive. I would imagine the shot was very expensive.
The raw price of Tungsten is also going up.

Price, average, domestic dealer, dollars per pound
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012e
$12.73 $7.84 $8.76 $11.47 $10.17 : Bismuth
$1.20 $0.87 $1.09 $1.22 $1.14 :Lead - North American Producer
$1.84 $1.51 $1.83 $2.48 $3.60 :Tungsten - U.S. spot market, Platts Metals Week




If you are familiar with a "shape charge" in a bazooka, then you understand the need for density. Copper is the easiest to work, but you normally need lead to get some realistic density.

When shape charges were adopted for torpedo design, the Russians built submarines with a layer of missile launch tubes on the outside. In order to get the shape charge through the distance and the metal, we used tantalum for the shape charge instead of lead. Tantalum is several times denser than lead, but it is fantastically expensive.

The theory was that if you hit a submarine and didn't cause enough damage, the sub would be more dangerous than an undetected submarine. The belief was that if they were hit once, they would expect another torpedo shortly. In the interim they would fire all their missiles with or without orders from their command. In the belief that they were going to die, they would naturally want to inflict a massive amount of damage as their last gesture.

The distorted shape of the SSBN was built to accomodate a cylindrical hull for the seaman, but outside the pressure hull, but inside the outer hull were the missile tubes.


Price, tantalite, dollars per pound of Ta2O5 content3
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012e
$44 $40 $54 $125 $110

Very interesting Paco. Wouldn't this design mean a breech of the hull would be more likely to damage the thermonuclear devices? Also, if launches could not be accomplished in opposing pairs, wouldn't the boat list badly, making the ICBM's release horizontally?

The outer hull is for hydrodynamics only. It's breech has very little effect. The inner hull will certainly be penetrated, but a shape charge is a high speed jet of metal (preferably of the densest material possible). It flies around the room at faster than the speed of sound tearing up human beings and electronic equipment. But it isn't possible to breach the inner hull like in WWII with one of these shape charges. You are left with a destroyed room, and a high pressure jet of water running into the room.

But before the submarine starts rolling, an enemy in another room may fire all the missiles thinking that he is going to die anyway. This type of submarine fires anti-ship missiles, so they would all be directed at a convoy.

The Russian submarines, the Typhoon class, that carries ballistic nuclear missiles actually has two pressure hulls. The missiles are in between the hulls. This was the submarine in the "Hunt for Red October" although they didn't describe it correctly. In the anti-ship missiles, the missiles protect the people. In the nuclear missile submarine, the people protect the missiles. This situation was even more dangerous, because now there are independent pressure hulls. Each one is not as well protected because it is close to the outside, but even if you breach it and everyone in it dies in a minute, you still have one on the other side which can fire the missiles. The submarine would be badly listing, but the missiles can right themselves in the water. Now you have a load of nuclear missiles homing in on cities.

See the missile hatches in the center of the Typhoon class. Each side has a separate pressure hull.



A submarine capable of launching nuclear weapons is always the last bastion in a global war. Your may find and take out land based silos, and you may shoot down all airplanes carrying nuclear bombs, but it is nearly impossible to find all the SSBN's in the ocean and disable them at once. The original fear was that Russia would sell their submarines to China since they need the money, but instead China is developing it's own class of ballistic submarines that are for more capable than the Russian ones ever were.



The problem with the Chinese missiles is that they are very sophisticated, and the submarines can stay in their own economic zone. It is not necessary for them to break arctic ice, or to go on patrols all around the world. Their "secret" base in Hainan means that they can go on short missions for 10 days, and return to party.

Well 1200 pounds of feathers is HEAVIER than 1000 pounds of Lead :oP



Speaking of all this military might your posting, how bout that Soviet Air Force shooting down that errant N. Korean Missle Test... lol.

I saw something on TV that said they now know that a mine in Canada that has mother-loads of various metals was caused by an asteroid hit. Ironically, though, the metals came from falling out of the magma that pooled and cooled at a very slow rate, which allows the metals to segregate. Billions of years ago.