What is ballistics gel ?
Ballistics gelatin, famous as ballistics gel, is an analogue for the tissue of live organisms that is made from gelatin which is dissolved in water, permitted to set, and then chilled so that it becomes very thick. As the name means, ballistics gel is used to experiment firearms, although it is also used in experiments where people want to estimate the amount of damage something will cause to a body without actually using a real body. Numerous companies produce ballistics gelatin to very exacting standards for organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and it is also likely to make a comparable version at home.
When ballistics gel is made, the quantity of gelatin to water is designed to create a block of gelatin that will closely imitate the muscle tissue of an animal. In some experiments, bones from pigs or other animals will be balanced in the gelatin while it sets so that the experimentation more closely mimics a real body, since most bodies do not walk around boneless. Once the gelatin has set, some organizations study it with a standard firearm to make sure that it has been made to the right specifications; the organization uses accessible data on bullet infiltration to calibrate the ballistics gel.
The most common uses for ballistics gel are in testing of latest firearms. A firearms company might want to distinguish how effectively a weapon will penetrate a body at different distances, for instance. Ballistics gelatin can imitate the composition of a human body, but it is also used in testing of bullets and firearms designed for other animals, ranging from elephants to birds. Bullets are also designed for a wide variety of uses; a company may want to design a bullet that penetrates without causing a great deal of harm, for instance, so that the bullet could be used as a nonlethal tool.
Organizations may also use ballistics gel when they attempt to know the mechanics of a crime. Confiscated weapons may be fired into ballistics gel to find bullets for study, for example, or an association may be curious to know more about the situation when a bullet was fired. With the use of blocks of ballistic gel as human stand-ins, investigators can obtain a better picture of a crime scene, and they may discover more about the positioning of the weapons and victims.
