Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: can you explain the diameter measurements used in bullets? Bullets
Speaker 1: come in a variety of different calibers. The caliber indicates
Speaker 1: the diameter of the bullet. Some common calibers include two caliber,
Speaker 1: thirty eight caliber, forty four caliber. For example, you've probably
Speaker 1: heard of a twenty two caliber rifle. In all these cases,
Speaker 1: the caliber number indicates the diameter of the bullet in inches,
Speaker 1: So a caliber bullet is a quarter of an inch
Speaker 1: in diameter. Words like magnum like a forty four magnum,
Speaker 1: or special like a thirty eight special imply that a
Speaker 1: higher energy powder is used with that bullet. Then there's
Speaker 1: shotgun shells. The gauge numbers for a shotgun, for example
Speaker 1: of gauge or fourteen gauge indicate the size of the shells.
Speaker 1: If you were to make lead balls, the diameter of
Speaker 1: the gun barrel. How many balls would it take to
Speaker 1: make a pound of lead. If it's twelve balls, it's
Speaker 1: a twelve gage shotgun. If it's fourteen balls in a
Speaker 1: pound of lead, then that's a fourteen gage shotgun that's
Speaker 1: about as weird as units get. For more on this
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