Many different gadgets, from Sam Fisher’s devices in Splinter Cell game to Agent 47’s legendary double pistols, from James Bond’s silenced pistol to the indispensable Welrod model of Sniper Elite games, play a role in making such characters of the game and cinema world engrave in our minds. After all, who should do what with Agent 47, who is walking around with a pistol without a silencer?
When we bring these characters to life in plays or watching them in the cinema, we are inevitably fascinated by their cool moves. They stand out with the way they use weapons, especially in scenarios that require secrecy. In this context, as a single person, they can defeat dozens of people with weapons without anyone noticing the situation. But would it really be possible for the guns to be so quiet?
First of all, let’s look at why the sound comes from the barrel?
When the trigger is pulled, the gunpowder portion behind the bullet is fired. In the blink of an eye, this causes the projectile in the front to eject at incredible speed. The resulting pressure follows the projectile to eject itself into a free space. When it comes out of the barrel, a loud sound occurs when the accumulated pressure is suddenly released.
You can liken it to the sound when you open the mushroom caps. In that scenario, there is some air trapped inside, and when you open the way, it suddenly releases and goes out, creating that sound.
The second reason is that the projectile exceeds the speed of sound:
The result is a loud noise. When these two factors combine, the loud sounds of guns that we know are revealed.
So what exactly does the muffler, which is a piece of metal, change?
The equipment we know as silencers are produced from materials such as steel, aluminum and titanium, which are resistant to high temperatures. The working logic of these tools, which we see mostly in the form of cylinders, is simple. We have just shown the sudden release of high pressure as the source of the sound of the gun.
The higher the pressure, the louder the sound produced. Silencers offer room for this pressure to spread out a bit after it leaves the barrel. To do this, they have cavities inside. After the rapidly moving gas diffuses into these cavities, it becomes much lighter, and as the pressure is reduced in this context, less sound is produced when the bullet leaves the barrel. Let’s add that silencers offer tens of times more space for air passage than barrels.
Silencers significantly reduce the sound coming out of the muzzle, that’s fine, but what have you done John Wick… [SPOILER]
It is a fact that silencers do not work as you can see in the video above. So how much do they mute?
This question will vary for each weapon and each silencer type, but from the video above you can roughly notice how misleading the movie and game worlds are in this regard. But remember, at the end of the day, it’s all for fun.
Is it possible to completely silence a weapon?
You can attach a closet-sized silencer to a small gun to diffuse the air. But let’s not forget that the shock wave that develops due to the speed of the bullet is also one of the important reasons for the noise. Today, it is said that the laws of physics will not allow us to eliminate it. Instead, it is thought that we can be content with greatly reducing it.
It’s like wishing that jets wouldn’t make a sound when crossing the speed of sound. Work continues, both in this area and on making the weapons quieter. You can share your thoughts on the subject in the comment section.
Sources: GameSpot, The Infographic Show, Science ABC, Silencer Shop
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