Civil war canon kill and elephant.. penitrate it's skin.. yes or no... Argument?

Question

my friend (female) believes that 1st off a canon if shot at a person will only break the leg, I told her it would rip you in half... who's right??? :)

Also she said that a canon coudn't penetrate an Elephants skin, it coudn't kill and Elephant. Primarily because the canon ball is blunt and large.

I told her it would most definetly kill and elephant if you shot one with a canon

why.. the canon ball weights ?? 20 lbs and is traveling about 1000 mph and that would equate to something like a million joules of energy on impact...

any way she is stubbon but then again I am too....


so who do you guys side with, me or her

Answer 1

Well, I can assure you that just about any of the pieces classified as artillery in the civil war would easily kill an elephant.

The wiki (link below) is great for real information.

To give you a real example, one of the oldest pieces used was the M1857 12-pounder "Napoleon". It fired a 12 pound shot at 1440 ft / sec. The next model (the howitzers) used exploding shells which is the equivilent of firing a large grenade (much penentration power). So sticking with the Napoleon...

to get an idea of how fast that is (to verify or disprove the 1000 mph...)
1440 ft / sec = X MPH
1440 ft * 60 (to convert sec to min) * 60 (to convert min to hr)
= 5184000 ft / hr (which you then divide by 5280 ft)
= 981 MPH
Which the speed of an average bullet from a hand gun.

Now, the argument is that the cannon ball it too big to penetrate. The largest black powder 'elephant gun' fired a 4.25 oz (1in diameter) shot at 1500 ft / sec. This was sufficient to penetrate the brain of the elephant. This cannon ball would have 45 times the force of that slug and was only 4 times wider. I would have to guess it would penetrate easily.

Answer 2

There are several documented cases of Civil War soldiers witnessing an unexploded cannonball bouncing across a field, and ripping off the arms, legs, and torsos of anyone unlucky enough to get in its way. If it were traveling slow enough I'm sure it would break your leg, but you'd have to be hit very close to the end of the cannonball's travels not to suffer a more severe injury.

Cannonballs from Civil War cannons do not travel at "a thousand miles per hour." In actuality, they are slow enough so that you can see them as they fly through the air. For that reason - and the reason that it's much harder for a round object to penetrate something than a pointed one - I doubt seriously if a cannonball fired from a CW cannon could penetrate an elephant's skin. It would, however, blow the crap out of the elephant when it exploded on contact if the fuse was correctly set.

Cannonballs also don't weight 20 pounds...not all of them, anyway. The description of the cannon will tell you how much the shot weighs - for example, a 15 pound Parrot gun fires a projectile weighing 15 pounds, and a 12 pound Cohen mortar fires a 12 pound projectile.

In a way, you're both right, and you're both wrong.

Answer 3

Depends if the cannon, type of shot used, how much powder was in the charge, and the distance.

If to close the ball wouldn't have enough time to pick up speed to do maximun damage.

If not enough powder was used might fall short or just injur the elephant.

if its grape shot then all you have is a big shot gun, yes it probably would break skin, mame yes, kill possibly.

Answer 4

Im with you but it depends on the type of cannon and how much powder you put into it, A civle war cannon is very differend from whatr we have today, With today tech we could line up twenty elefants and put a hole through them all.

Answer 5

She must of saw The Patriot when that cannon ripped off the guys leg.

Answer 6

depends on TOO MANY factors...yes it COULD kill the elephant
but some of the lighter canon may simply injure it....

Answer 7

here's a good refutation for your friend http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarweapons.htm

Answer 8

u are right. she sounds like a dumb democrat. get her to stand in front of one.