Get Ready to be Amazed! This Simple NERF Dart Breaks the Sound Barrier
Ah, NERF guns. They're a pretty safe way to shoot stuff, but they're also one of the easiest toys to upgrade into an actual weapon. For example, YouTuber Giaco Whatever decided to push NERF physics and make a dart bullet faster than a regular bullet.
While it might be tempting to think the video is a hoax, the numbers given check out. The compressed air-powered gun shoots the NERF dart at 800 meters (around 2,626 ft) per second. Most bullets speed by at just 2,500 feet per second.
As others have noted in the video's comments (with some amazement), that means the gun can shoot a foam NERF dart at Mach 2.351. That's a tiny piece of foam whizzing by at 2.351 times the speed of sound.
Need further proof that this thing moves fast? Take into account how fast Giaco had to film the video in order for the slow-mo to even adequately show the dart in motion. Most films on YouTube are shot at 24 frames per second. Even at 1,000 fps, the dart was still difficult to see.
And Giaco wants to make the gun even faster. "I'm planning to make a version two of this cannon," he noted on YouTube. "I have a couple of ideas to make it even faster..."
If you want to see more NERF darts slam into objects at high speeds, check out Giaco's playlist of NERF mods.