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Old 2008-01-12, 18:51   Link #1031
Jinto
Asuki-tan Kairin ↓
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Fürth (GER)
Age: 43
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comrade View Post
It's been bothering me for a while. Can a bullet proof vest protect it's wearer against a sword/knife or other similar weapons?
If the vest can stop almost any bullet, it seems logical that a sword would have no chance. But a small part of my mind doubts that.
So, can anyone, who has deeper knowledge in these sort of things, enlighten me?
http://www.nlectc.org/BatPro/

Offers you a database of tested body armor of different levels of balistic and stab protection. Usually stab protection won't protect against ballistic and vice versa.
The main reason is speed. A bullet will impact at very high speeds, causing a short but extremely intensive impact. Material against balistics tries to spread/consume the impact energy through elastic deformation. For armor piercing bullets ceramics/aramid is used (similar to composit armor on battle tanks, I am not sure if there is already some reactive body armor out there, I doubt it though). Stabbing weapons have a rather slow impact speed. So these weapons can provide high levels of penetration energy for longer timespans. So the material should not be brittle (ceramics) or supple (kevlar/aramid).
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Last edited by Jinto; 2008-01-12 at 19:07.
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