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Frame from .38 Special vs Prince Ruperts Drop at 170,000 FPS - Smarter Every Day 169 Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

.38 Special vs Prince Ruperts Drop at 170,000 FPS - Smarter Every Day 169

25 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this demo1 month2017–2023 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited in Prince Rupert's drop threads as the best high-speed footage of a bullet hitting one.

Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day fires .22 Magnum and .38 Special bullets at Prince Rupert's drops, filmed at 170,000 frames per second. The slow-motion footage shows the bullet shattering against the glass tadpole while the drop initially survives.

“In high speed, you can see the bullet splat against the glass and break into shards, long before the glass breaks. Really neat.” (HN, 2023)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Demos

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@NickHoff May 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Prince Rupert's Drop
There's also this one. [this video] He shoots the Prince Rupert's drop with a bullet. The bullet wins. In high speed, you can see the bullet splat against the glass and break into shards, long before the glass breaks. Really neat.
High-speed footage of a bullet splatting against a Prince Rupert's drop

Citations, criticism and jokes

@kahirsch May 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Scientists solve 400-year-old mystery of Prince Rupert's drops
The Smarter Every Day YouTube channel has done several high-speed videos about Prince Rupert's drops, including a couple released just last week. * 2013-03-22 [link] * 2016-12-29 [link] * 2017-04-26 [this video] * 2017-04-30 [link]
One of several Smarter Every Day high-speed videos on Prince Rupert's drops
@satvikpendem Dec 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Does Glass Break Faster Than a Bullet?
Related, hitting a Prince Rupert's drop with a bullet: [this video] TLDW: The bullet shatters and the drop stays intact.
A bullet shatters against a Prince Rupert's drop in slow motion
@gnicholas Apr 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Prince Rupert's Drop vs Molten Glas
He also did a bunch of super slow-motion videos about shooting a Prince Rupert's drop with various firearms: [link] [this video] [link]
Super slow-motion shots of firearms hitting Prince Rupert's drops

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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