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April 14, 2006

Strange But True!

Q. How can someone wearing a bulletproof vest be knocked over from the bullet's impact while an unprotected person usually isn't?

A. The first such vests in the 1940s were of nylon, supplemented with plates of fiberglass, ceramic or titanium, says Barry Parker in "Death Rays, Jet Packs, Stunts & Supercars: The Fantastic Physics of Film's Most Celebrated Secret Agent (James Bond)." Then came Kevlar, a liquid polymer that could be spun into fibers and made into cloth, and later Spectra. Their many layers (lamination) provided the bulletproofing.


 
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