On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 11:45 AM, Grimmund <grimmund@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Greg Nokes <greg@nokes.name> wrote:

> Of course at high enough speed, who cares if it’s tumbling, ass backward or
> what ever when it impacts.

Kinetic penetrators have a pointy end because, you know, driving a
nail through something works better if you start with the pointy end
of the nail rather than the head or the side.

This is the important thing--long-rod penetrators are inevitably going to be more effective than cannonballs.

At many velocities, a spun projectile also helps prevent the penetrator from skidding along sloped armor and skipping away instead of penetrating a depth that's within its theoretical capacity. Apparently, the gyroscopic effect somehow tends keep the nose of the penetrator against the armor.