We’ve all seen the movies. The mysterious kung fu master goes up against a gang of thieves and bullies, and after thrashing them to tiny bits with his shiny katana, gets a gun pulled on him by their cowardly leader. Only when the trigger is pulled, the sword master deflects the bullet away. Or maybe he spins the sword so fast it shields him from a spray of bullets.
Despite the obvious impossible reaction time needed for this feat, is it even physically possible for a sword to stand up to a gun? Can a carbon steel, or Damascus steel, acid-etched sword stand up to, say, the merciless pounding from a machine gun?
This video doesn’t have any English, either in the voiceover or subtitles, but you can get the gist of it as they compare the two forms of weaponry, show a few aspects of forging a sword, and then finally stick a sword on a shooting range and let you watch it…well, you’ll see.
Magnum 140mm Vs Japanese Original Sword – video powered by Metacafe
So the next time you have your sword-wielding ninja master stand up against an army, maybe buck the trend and instead of having him defeat them all with his amazing skills, have him get blown away into bloody shreds. That might surprise the reader a bit.
I see that smile.
I thought for sure Mythbusters tackled this query…
Best I could do was this.
I suppose it might not be a matter of reflex but of momentum required… I wish I had paid more attention in physics, dammit.
Since we don’t have a television, I’m pretty out of the loop as to what the Mythbusters have covered, though if I watched it, I’m sure it’d be one of my more regular shows. Thanks for the link!