Motionless Monday : Spherical shock waves of gun firing
This full-scale Schlieren image shows the discharge of a .44 Magnum revolver.
The basic optical Schlieren system uses light from a single collimated source shining on a target object. Variations in refractive index caused by density gradients in the fluid distort the collimated light beam. This distortion creates a spatial variation in the intensity of the light, which can be visualized directly with a system designed to capture shadows.
Two spherical shock waves are seen, one centered about the gun’s muzzle (the muzzle blast) and a second centered on the cylinder.
The supersonic bullet is visible at the far left.
