CasinoVanart wrote:I personally would not look at you that way, i would suggest the use of a Turbo or Supercharger to up those ponies.
Right... well, when I work out how to get past turbo lag, I'll get back to you.
To say the number is useless is actually wrong - it needs processing, but I reckon it can be useful in it's own way.
I've had a theory for a while that a launcher's power is naturally more consistent than it's muzzle energy across a different projectile weights.
To take some numbers from GGDT for HEAL, and with an average acceleration power calculated from that:
<table border="1"><tr><td>Mass (g)</td><td>Muzzle velocity (m/s)</td><td>Muzzle energy (J)</td><td>Power (W)</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>301.6</td><td>227.4</td><td>28577.4</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>248</td><td>307.5</td><td>31777.0</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>217</td><td>353.1</td><td>31932.2</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>196.1</td><td>384.5</td><td>31421.1</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>180.3</td><td>406.3</td><td>30527.1</td></tr><tr><td>30</td><td>168.1</td><td>423.8</td><td>29688.1</td></tr><tr><td>35</td><td>158.1</td><td>437.4</td><td>28815.2</td></tr><tr><td>40</td><td>149.7</td><td>448.2</td><td>27956.5</td></tr><tr><td>45</td><td>142.5</td><td>456.8</td><td>27127.8</td></tr><tr><td>50</td><td>136.3</td><td>464.4</td><td>26376.4</td></tr><tr><td>55</td><td>130.9</td><td>471.2</td><td>25700.4</td></tr><tr><td>60</td><td>126</td><td>476.2</td><td>25004.7</td></tr><tr><td>65</td><td>121.7</td><td>481.3</td><td>24408.6</td></tr><tr><td>70</td><td>117.8</td><td>485.6</td><td>23839.2</td></tr><tr><td>75</td><td>114.2</td><td>489.0</td><td>23271.1</td></tr><tr><td>80</td><td>111</td><td>492.8</td><td>22793.8</td></tr><tr><td>85</td><td>108</td><td>495.7</td><td>22307.4</td></tr><tr><td>90</td><td>105.2</td><td>498.0</td><td>21829.7</td></tr><tr><td>95</td><td>102.7</td><td>500.9</td><td>21438.4</td></tr><tr><td>100</td><td>100.3</td><td>503.0</td><td>21021.3</td></tr></table>
In general, you'll note that muzzle energy tends to rise with weight, and the power tails off, although not by quite such a drastic degree.
(You might also notice that the 5 gram power figure sits low of the general curve, mostly because the velocity is entering the transonic range).
Taking just an average of the power from 10 to 50 grams in weight: 29500 W, I can work back from there and get a decent match to the GGDT velocity figure (to within about 6 m/s or ~20 fps) for any projectile in that mass range.
Try the same with the KE, and the 10 gram figure is nearly 40 m/s out - because the power is a more level and consistent figure.
Now because KE (proportional to the square of velocity) rises with projectile mass, and power (proportional to the cube of velocity) falls, it makes sense that there's a compromise to an order between 2 and 3 that has a very level curve.
Now, looking it over, it seems that compromise is pretty much exactly 2.5
Outside of the transonic range, the figure Mass * velocity<sup>2.5</sup> is surprisingly consistent across very wide ranges of projectile masses.
Figuring an average of 10,560 (using kilos and m/s) for this figure (between 10 and 100 grams) for HEAL at 21 bar, it's possible to predict GGDT's result to within 3 m/s (~10 fps) for most projectile masses, with a slight 9 m/s blip at the 10 gram end.
Knowing this is not necessarily very useful if you've got GGDT around, but it could be prove very useful for trajectory analysis (working out how range would be affected by a change of projectile mass) and predictions based on real world data, saving the requirement to test quite as many different projectile masses to generate a reasonably full and accurate set of data.
I need to finish all the stuff to go with the theory, but I'm hoping the observation could prove useful when calibrating my dart project, to help filter out the changes in muzzle velocity caused by small differences in projectile mass to help improve accuracy - because the results predicted from an average taken over over a mass range of fractions of grams and within that range should be very good.