Science: Health: Biometrics
Bathroom Bullet Body Mass Index Apparatus   (+13, -2)  [vote for, against]
like a shot in the arm, more fun than scales and a measuring tape

a) Stand on the wheeled platform.
b) Insert a new bulletproof glass window pane in the platform wall.
c) Load a .50-cal. cartridge in the Magnum revolver mounted on the bathroom wall.
d) Plug your ears.
e) Pull the height bar down to the top of your head.
f) Looking into the barrel, pull the trigger string, releasing 2600 ft.-lb. of energy into the windowed, walled, wheeled platform.
g) When you stop rolling, read off your BMI, indicated at the end of the height bar where your horizontal height line intersects with your vertical distance (mass) line.
-- FarmerJohn, Mar 02 2005

Calculate your Body Mass Index http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmi-m.htm
[FarmerJohn, Mar 02 2005]

MODEL 500 S&W MAGNUM REVOLVER http://www.popularm...rearms/1277336.html
[FarmerJohn, Mar 02 2005]

(?) Don't get your glass shipments mixed up http://www.wthr.com...story.asp?S=2938451
[scubadooper, Mar 02 2005]

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics: The Attractive Force of Glass http://www.intuitor...s/mpmain.html#glass
Calculations and a good explanation. [Detly, Mar 05 2005]

I had to read it twice, but yes I get it now. Completely useless device, totally redundant, utterly mad invention.

I want to try it out.

Can I try it out again?
-- zeno, Mar 02 2005


About three more times before the police arrive.
-- FarmerJohn, Mar 02 2005


Heh, heh..had some fun with your link FJ.
-- skinflaps, Mar 02 2005


I think this might be bad for my blood pressure.....at least it would affect my heart rate for a while. Although I did determine the minimum weight I need to shed this spring.....25 pounds.

Every time I mention a firearm on the 'bakery, the SPPPL [ Society for the Prevention of Peasants Possessing Longbows ] starts posting. Your bloodless use of this tool and your revered elder status may mitigate this.
-- normzone, Mar 02 2005


This reminds me of the last episode of "Mythbusters" that I saw. Based on that, I wouldn't expect great things from this experiment. They were busting the Hollywood-perpetuated myth of the gunshot victim flying through the air as a result of energy imparted by a bullet. There was amazingly little motion imparted unto the pig carcass that they were shooting with high powered and fully automatic weapons.
-- half, Mar 02 2005


[half] I’m can’t find a good calculation of the resulting target distance or velocity except that the energy imparted by a bullet is equivalent to a thrown baseball. Maybe with good wheel bearings, movement could be measured in millimeters.
-- FarmerJohn, Mar 02 2005


Better make sure you pick up the right piece of glass, see link
-- scubadooper, Mar 02 2005


"...When you stop rolling, read off your BMI, ..." Make sure to account for the weight of your hearing guards.
-- bristolz, Mar 03 2005


I think the difference between a pig carcass and a glass screen is the degree to which the collision is elastic or inelastic - transfer of momentum and all that.
What does the Magnum bullet weigh, in grammes?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 03 2005


15.55 grams.
-- angel, Mar 03 2005


Thinking about it, after firing a half ounce slug at your face at Mach 1.5, the bathroom is a pretty useful place to be.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 03 2005


BOOM!

<... calculating ... based on 500kg soundproof, bulletproof box moving 0.9mm ... calculating error margins ...>

<computer voice> "Your weight is ... 72.35kg plus or minus 41.5kg"</computer voice>
-- hippo, Mar 03 2005


Instead of glass, you'd use the stuff used in bullet traps for rifle grenades, whatever it is. Less scary too, 'cos I'm betting it's opaque.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 03 2005


[edj] Welcome to the Halfbakery.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 03 2005


Hmm. Perhaps a more positive approach must be taken. Rather than chambering the round with a conventional bullet you, instead, cast a special enlarged-hollowpoint bullet where the interior walls of the hollow are threaded to receive a 24" long steel rod of approximately .35" diameter that is inserted into the muzzle--down the barrel--and screwed into the chambered bullet. The other end of the rod is then placed, by aiming the gun, firmly against a solid wall and then the gun is fired.

The BMI is computed from what remains of you.
-- bristolz, Mar 03 2005


...and the exploded gun.

OK, what about this approach: You stand on a wheeled platform in your bathroom. In this set-up, you hold then gun and fire it out of the window. The recoil causes your wheeled platform to move an amount proportional to your mass. Heavier weapons (e.g. anti-tank rockets) will produce a greater recoil and more accuracy in the measurement of mass.
-- hippo, Mar 03 2005


I dunno. Read the details about how the frame of that particular revolver is built. It might well withstand such chamber pressures.

Your forearm, on the other hand, might not (on the other hand, of course, as there won't be any other).
-- bristolz, Mar 03 2005


[hippo] Sorry, anti-tank rockets probably won't work - they're so heavy, they're usually designed to be recoiless - you chuck as much mass out behind.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 03 2005


Finally, a way to accurately weigh your head.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 05 2005


This discussion reminded me of Intuitor's Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. See link.
-- Detly, Mar 05 2005



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