High-speed sequential photograph
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, North Carolina, United States
A hanging elastic strip caught a 4.5-mm spherical projectile that moved from left to right. The projectile and strip are seen in this photograph at eight successive instants of time, which begin immediately after the projectile contacts the first strip. Eight flash units were covered with different colored filters to provide visual separation of the overlapping images. The time interval between flashes was 0.00055 seconds. The strip decelerates the projectile from 130 to 7 m/s in approximately 0.004 seconds. The decelerating force is applied primarily by the stretching of the elastic immediately behind the projectile.
