It’s a common law of the action movie world that everything looks cooler in slow motion. Gunshots, punches to the face, explosions, car crashes … all are fun to watch at normal speed but downright awesome at high speed. The reason, well brace yourselves folks, but its scientific. When you slow down any event you get to see the subtle machinations that trigger that event. For an explosion you can see the air combusting. For a punch to the face you get to see muscle ripples and compression of the skin. For a gunshot you get to actually see the bullet leaving the barrel of the gun. In a sense, it is man’s natural curiosity that makes him enjoy some of the more graphic elements of life in slow motion. In another sense, the explosion is lasting twice as long … Bonus! Here are some real life slow motion events I find particularly interesting.

The Slow Motion Punch

I think the slow motion punch is our favorite over here at 30ninjas, simply because there is so much that goes into it. Watch the rippling of the arm that throws the punch, and then the shockwave that goes through the face that receives the punch. This has never been more proof that the human body is mostly water, because as soon as the punch hits the skin moves almost as if it were the surface of a liquid, shockwaves rocking the entire body, causing both impact and tension injury. Just think, this complex process happens every time someone gets punched in a movie.

The Slow Motion Bullet

Another favorite, slowing down a bullet really allows you to see what is happening. You see, in normal speed bullets are almost instantaneous. A gun is pointed at something, the trigger is pulled, and that thing gets shot. There is not a whole lot of poetry in that. However, what we are doing is throwing a high speed piece of metal (and not even a particularly sharp one) at our target, fast enough so that the impact simply makes it dissolve. This movie is a montage of gunshots, showing that what we perceive as instantaneous is actually a localized impact explosion. Fascinating and in its own way as beautiful as it is deadly.

The Slow Motion Explosion

There is one particularly reason why slow motion explosions are so interesting, and that is the shockwave. Watch this video; see how there seems to be a ripple extending out from the explosion once it starts? That is not photo trickery. That is actually the force of the explosion compressing the air so much that it distorts the picture in high speed. Most people do not realize that it is not the flames of an explosion that do the killing, but the impact of the shockwave. Imagine your body being compressed in such a small space that quickly. Your bones would be crunched through your organs, and if that didn’t finish you off the shrapnel most certainly would.

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• X for EXTREME!!!
• Schwarzenegger Physics
• Homemade Explosions