- 710
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So right now we have Composite Human's reactions as Subsonic+ based on maximum Civil-War cannonball speed cut in half and John Holtum's cannonball catch.
Sadly, this is based off incorrect assumptions; John Holtum was impressive but it was still mostly stage trickery that made his feat possible.
First off, the speed of the cannonball quoted is incorrect for our purposes. He used a field gun not a naval gun, which has a much larger gunpowder charge (~5-9 lbs. compared to 1-3 lbs.) for greater range and throwing heavier balls. The current value is for a naval gun, as the value quoted (~513 m/s) is from E. Simpson's Treatise on Ordnance & Naval Gunnery. In contrast, a standard piece of field artillery in the Civil-War, the 20-pound parrot rifle, had a muzzle velocity of 1250 fps (381 m/s). In addition, he actually used a 50 lb. ball so it'd be around 2.5x slower, not even including the smaller powder charge.
Second, the charge wasn't just cut in half, it was made so low that someone who tried replicating the feat actually survived (for a while) getting hit with only a fractured skull instead of instantly dying. I've heard speeds of around 100 mph (45 m/s), which makes sense because a 22 kg object moving at 200 m/s is enough to obliterate a tree.
Sadly, this is based off incorrect assumptions; John Holtum was impressive but it was still mostly stage trickery that made his feat possible.
First off, the speed of the cannonball quoted is incorrect for our purposes. He used a field gun not a naval gun, which has a much larger gunpowder charge (~5-9 lbs. compared to 1-3 lbs.) for greater range and throwing heavier balls. The current value is for a naval gun, as the value quoted (~513 m/s) is from E. Simpson's Treatise on Ordnance & Naval Gunnery. In contrast, a standard piece of field artillery in the Civil-War, the 20-pound parrot rifle, had a muzzle velocity of 1250 fps (381 m/s). In addition, he actually used a 50 lb. ball so it'd be around 2.5x slower, not even including the smaller powder charge.
Second, the charge wasn't just cut in half, it was made so low that someone who tried replicating the feat actually survived (for a while) getting hit with only a fractured skull instead of instantly dying. I've heard speeds of around 100 mph (45 m/s), which makes sense because a 22 kg object moving at 200 m/s is enough to obliterate a tree.
