that
you can use to calculate
muzzle energy,
efficacy, and
sectional density for firearm cartridges. You enter the bullet
weight in grains, its velocity in feet per second, and its diameter in
inches, and the application computes energy in foot pounds, efficacy,
and sectional density in pounds per square inch.
This palm application is a subset of my Muzzle Energy Computer web page, allowing you to carry these computations in your pocket.
My thanks to L. Neil Smith for requesting this application, providing me the motivation to write it.
If you like it, please send whatever you think it's worth (suggested price: $5). Either wire to bill@billstclair.com via PayPal, or send me email requesting a snail mail address for your cash, check, or money order.
Installation
If you already have HotPaw Basic (AKA yBasic), you can simply install Energy.PRC on your Palm, and click on the resulting "Energy" icon. Otherwise, go to the HotPaw page and download the Basic interpreter and MathLib. Or you can download my local copy of yBasic.zip (110K), which contains the two needed PRC files. You'll want the real distribution if you intend to do any programming. If you just want to use the energy calculator, you can get away with just the PRCs.
The source for Energy.PRC is in Energy.txt (3K). You can paste this into your Palm's memo pad via Palm Desktop, and customize it. To save a new icon including your modifications, you'll need to grok the yBasic documentation.
Energy.zip (119K) contains this entire directory, for off-line browsing.
Usage
Enter numbers on the dotted lines to the right of the "Weight", "Velocity", and "Diameter" labels, using Graffiti or the keypad. Press the "OK" button to compute "Energy", "Efficacy", and "Sec. Dens.".
To save a weight/velocity/diameter setting, enter a "Name" for it (don't use a colon character, ":", in the name or you will likely become confused), and press the "Calc2" button.
To restore a previously saved setting, enter its "Name", and press the "Calc" button.
Saved settings are stored in the memo pad in a memo named "#Energy". You can edit that memo "by hand" if you wish, either on your Palm or in the Palm Desktop application on your PC. Each line is of the form:
name:weight,velocity,diameter
The other buttons work as follows:
Paste the contents of energy-seed.txt into a new memo to seed your muzzle energy calculator with the following Remington loads:
0-9, "-", "." self-inserting "clr" Clears the field containing the cursor "<-" Erases the character before the cursor "En" (Enter) Moves the cursor to the next input field "Done" Exits to the application launcher
Definitions
Name Description 223 .223 Remington (5.56 Nato), the M-16/AR-15 round ak 7.62x39, the AK-47 round 308 .308 Winchester (7.62 Nato), the M14/M1A/FAL round 30-06 .30-06 Springfield, the M1 round 444 .444 Marlin, my favorite big bore lever gun 9mm 9mm Luger, the army issue mouse gun round 357 .357 magnum, a stiff round for a small revolver 40 .40 S&W, the new man-stopper 45 .45 ACP, the old original & effective 1911 man-stopper 44 .44 Magnum: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" slug Shotgun slug
Efficacy is a measure proposed by L. Neil Smith. It is defined as energy in foot pounds multiplied by projectile cross-sectional area in square inches. Neil says that this is a pretty good indicator of the relative efficacy against live targets of different projectiles and loads. In an email about the Muzzle Energy Computer page, Neil wrote, "I'm not absolutely certain of its applicability to rifles (although it looks pretty good and is fine for slugs and rifles like .45/70). There are other factors at work above 2000-2500 feet per second. But every year that passes convinces me more that this is the perfect program for predicting handgun performance."
Copyright © 2003 by Bill St. Clair
<bill@billstclair.com>
All Rights Reserved