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Speaker 1: Brain with today's question. How does a gun silencer work?
Speaker 1: It's amazing that anything is able to silence a gun,
Speaker 1: but gun silencers actually work on a very simple principle.
Speaker 1: Imagine a balloon. If you pop a balloon with a pin,
Speaker 1: it will make a loud noise, But if you were
Speaker 1: to untie the end of the balloon and let the
Speaker 1: air out slowly, it makes very little noise. This is
Speaker 1: the basic idea behind a gun silencer. To fire a
Speaker 1: bullet from a gun, gunpowder is ignited behind the bullet.
Speaker 1: The gunpowder creates a high pressure pulse of hot gas.
Speaker 1: The pressure of the gas forces the bullet down the
Speaker 1: barrel of the gun. When the bullet exits the end
Speaker 1: of the barrel, it is like uncorking a bottle. The
Speaker 1: pressure behind the bullet is immense, however, on the order
Speaker 1: of three thousand pounds per square inch, so the pop
Speaker 1: that a gun makes as it's uncorked is extremely loud.
Speaker 1: A silencer screws onto the end of the barrel and
Speaker 1: has a huge volume compared to the barrel, twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty times greater. With the silencer in place, the pressure
Speaker 1: rise gas behind the bullet has a big space to
Speaker 1: expand into, so the pressure of the hot gas falls significantly.
Speaker 1: When the bullet finally exits through the hole in the silencer,
Speaker 1: The pressure being uncorked is much much lower, perhaps sixty
Speaker 1: p s i. Therefore, the sound of the gun firing
Speaker 1: is much softer. Do you have any ideas or suggestions
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