A Study of Splashes

Method

We placed a pellet gun in a rack about 3 feet above a quarter held by a clamp and fired it downward. For safety we put a five gallon bucket of sand below the quarter to catch any stray pellets. To align the pellet gun we placed a piece of paper on top of the bucket and fired a shot into it. We then placed the clamp and quarter over the resulting hole. To trigger the flash and capture the pellet while it was in between the gun and the bucket we used a sound trigger, and adjusted its distance from the barrel of the pellet gun. We placed the sound trigger on the floor and then shot the gun with the lights off and the flash on. We were able to see the pellet at the instant the flash went off, and then adjust the height of our clamp accordingly. The pellet gun was shot and we then adjusted the height of the clamp until we had the correct position for the quarter. Once everything was setup, were were ready to begin taking pictures. We used a Sony digital camera set to a two second shutter speed. First we loaded the pellet gun, then turned off the lights, and fired the shot immediately after the shutter was opened on the camera. We used coins of room temperature, very cold, and very hot temperatures. To cool the coins, we placed them in a cup of liquid nitrogen, and then placed them under the gun using tongs. To heat the coins we placed them in the clamp, and then used a portable flame torch. The problem with heating the coins was when they began to get very hot the clamp holding them began to melt. We took several pictures using different coins, and different temperatures.

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