The Science of Weapons

By Shelley Tougas

Humans have used weapons to fight their enemies since the dawn of history. Today’s military arsenal is filled with the most accurate and sophisticated tools yet. Read all about these high tech weapons and the science that went into their development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780756550806

Shelley Tougas

Shelley Tougas is an award-winning writer of nonfiction for children, including Little Rock Girl 1957, and the author of the novels The Graham Cracker Plot, Finders Keepers, and A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids. She lives in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Book preview

images/cover.jpgimages/B_23.jpg

Contents

1: From Sticks to Firearms

2: Artillery

3: Bombs

4: Grenades and Small Explosives

5: Rockets and Missiles

6: Weapons of the Future

Glossary

Read More

Internet Sites

Index

images/img-4-1.jpg

People have fought each other since the beginning of time. They handled conflict with bare hands and muscle power. They used sticks and stones. But science has changed the way we live—and the way we fight. Soldiers today need more than strong backs and hard fists. Weapons are more complicated, more precise, and more expensive than ever before. Computers, the laws of physics, and modern labs are the foundation of the modern military arsenal. Scientists are as important to modern warfare as well-trained soldiers.

Chemists and physicists work with researchers, engineers, designers, and testing technicians to create better weapons. Today’s military is more brain than brawn.

Today’s military is more brain than brawn.

Guns

Firearms are the most common weapons in the military. Handguns, rifles, and machine guns are types of firearms. Until they are shot from guns, bullets are in metal tubes called cartridges.

images/img-5-1.jpg

A cartridge consists of a case, a bullet, a propellant such as gun powder, and a primer such as an explosive cap. The cartridge is loaded in to a gun’s chamber, which is located just behind the barrel. Hand guns called revolvers have more than one chamber, and each holds a bullet. A spring-loaded hammer is on the back side of the chamber. The shooter releases the hammer by pulling the trigger. A firing pin hits the primer, igniting it and the gunpowder. Gases expand and force the bullet through the barrel. The whole process occurs in a millisecond.

Guns shoot bullets at