
12 Ballistics: Theory and Design of Guns and Ammunition
We need to recall from dynamics that the kinetic energy of the projectile can be written as
K.E.
projectile
=
2
mV
(2.21)
where V
m
is the muzzle velocity. If we assume that all of the energy of the gas is converted
with no losses into kinetic energy of the projectile, then we can use Equation 2.15 to state that
projectile
(2.22)
We can make use of Equations 2.20 and 2.21 to write this as
1
2
1
mV
mRTl
lL l
i
pm
g
=
−
()
()
[(
γ
(2.23)
This is an important result as it relates muzzle velocity to the properties and amount of the
gas used, the mass of the projectile, and includes ...