againsttheodds - Gizmodo

posts about #againsttheodds more →
Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

Cordfucious of Tech Clan
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
FYI.... St. Tammany Parish is not a suburb of New Orleans. A "parish" is Louisiana's equivilent of a County. So I doubt that a county could be a "suburb" . Since St. Tammany is across the lake... I am going to say he is from either Slidell, Covington, Mandeville, or one of those other Klan Infested Areas.
Reply

BeautifulAgony
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
Yah, big deal... I heard from a friend of a friend who is deployed in Iraq that the 3G iPhone stopped a 120mm mortar round and saved an entire platoon.

/sarcasm
Reply

BeautifulAgony was starred BeautifulAgony was unstarred

Skorpius
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
Its always fashionable for people to rip on Moto all the time, but their build quality is incredible. I'm still using my StarTAC which I bought in 2000. Still works.
Reply

Skorpius was starred Skorpius was unstarred

92BuickLeSabre
11/23/08

@Skorpius: I have to admit I'm jealous. The StarTAC was a brilliant phone.
Reply

92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred

Scazza
11/23/08

@Skorpius: ask anyone who has owned, worked with, or repaired razr phones before, and they will tell you that looking at a razr the wrong way usually kills it. And nowadays Moto are no where near as good as they used to be, a starTac could EASILY take a bullet from closer ranges, that phone and all the original moto phones were built to last forever.
Reply

Scazza was starred Scazza was unstarred

TBM-Fan
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
and what can we learn from this story

always keep your phone close to the heart

but if the bullet was fired @ the max range that's still deadly he wouldn't have survived
Reply

TBM-Fan was starred TBM-Fan was unstarred

Purple Dave
11/24/08

@TBM-Fan:
If it was fired at the maximum possible range where it could have still penetrated to his heart (assuming it missed the ribs), smacking into a cel-phone should have ablated enough of the force to save his life. He probably would have either still had penetration (just not deep enough to be lethal), or he would have felt like he'd been kicked by a mule and had an impressive bruise to show off.
Reply

Purple Dave was starred Purple Dave was unstarred

92BuickLeSabre
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
The guy still used a RAZR, eh?

*shakes head*

It's truly sad the way New Orleans has struggled to comeback while the rest of the nation continues to ignore the plight of its people.
Reply

92BuickLeSabre was starred 92BuickLeSabre was unstarred

mycintosh
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
There is no way, that the RAZR would have stopped that bullet.

The bullet would have been way more deformed, left alone the phone.

Mythbusters busted this already with an iPod.

Its just a lie or an ordinary news story, you can decide
Reply

mycintosh was starred mycintosh was unstarred

reefdog
11/23/08

@mycintosh: the pic of the bullet is stock footage, not the actual round. I saw a pic of the real bullet and yes, it was properly deformed by the impact. It's been said multiple times already, from far enough away, even with a ballistic trajectory, the bullet will lose enough of it's stopping power for this to occur. Also take into account that the phone was in a shirt pocket, not tight against his body so there was room for the phone to move and deflect the round, like a trampoline, which is coincidentally the idea behind kevlar fiber in bullet proof vests. Flex and give are the keys to energy absorption and dispersion of a projectile.
Reply

reefdog was starred reefdog was unstarred

GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
11/23/08

@reefdog: Did you watch the video? They said "THIS was the bullet". Here is another pict, albeit blurry, and you can see the bullet is not deformed
Reply

Purple Dave
11/24/08

@mycintosh:
Bullets lose speed as they push their way through yard after yard of air, and given enough height and distance would eventually reach a point where they're just falling straight down with the force of gravity (the easiest way to achieve this is to fire straight up, and once gravity and wind resistance overcome the ballistic force, it will reverse direction and simply fall back to ground). There's also the possibility that the gun malfunctioned in some manner, and the bullet never really achieved any real speed. Regardless, it most definitely _is_ possible for something as flimsy as a cel-phone to stop a bullet once it's lost enough speed. The trouble is, hitting a target that small at sufficient distance for that much loss of velocity would be damn near impossible. It'd be much easier to recreate the experiment by firing rounds that have had most of their gunpowder removed.
Reply

Purple Dave was starred Purple Dave was unstarred

Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
11/23/08

In reply to Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life
Looks like the Hatfields and McCoys are at it again!
Reply

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#againsttheodds

Gizmodo

Gizmodo Team

SUBSCRIBE TO Gizmodo

Moto RAZR Stops Bullet, Saves Man's Life

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment