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Link: David Blaine catches a .22 caliber bullet fired from a rifle into a small metal cup in his mouth.

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He essentially stops a bullet, but his head barely moves back.

Wouldn't the momentum of bullet be enough to cause the person's head to be thrown back if the bullet came to a complete stop in their mouth?

laggingreflex
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    Is there any indication that blaine is doing anything other than stage magic? ie, does he claim any superpowers which allow him to stop a bullet? Related meta: https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1875/are-magic-tricks-in-scope?rq=1 What we don;t want to do here is give away how a stage magician performs a trick - thats against the intentions of stage magic and not within the scope of this site – Jamiec May 15 '18 at 15:02
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    People don't go flying backwards when they've been shot, like you see in movies. Bullets don't have a lot of force behind them when compared to something like blunt objects. The reason they're deadly is because they compress that force into a very small space. – DenisS May 15 '18 at 15:04
  • This wouldn't even be considered stage magic. The trick is playing off common popular misconceptions about how guns work and their effects. – DenisS May 15 '18 at 15:12
  • @Jamiec Would it work better if I just wanted to know whether the exact footage (the slow-mo) could be real or not? Blaine isn't claiming superpowers or anything, but he's being so transparent (showing slow-mo footage) that you're left wondering whether what he's showing is real or not. So I actually simply wanted to know whether the slow-mo shot could be real or not? – laggingreflex May 15 '18 at 15:14
  • @DenisStallings The bullet in this case doesn't hit near the chest (where it's near the center of mass of the whole body), but it hits on the head which is near the neck. In boxing videos whenever someone takes a punch their head is thrown back by a lot. Seems like with the bullet it should be thrown back *at least* a little.. in the video it barely seems to move. – laggingreflex May 15 '18 at 15:14
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    It all depends on how fast the bullet is going and how massive it is. He's running this in slo-mo, so there's no reason it has to be as fast or as large as a normal bullet. All it needs is enough speed to land on a consistent target. The impulse he has to deal with here is going to be less than the recoil impulse on the gun (the recoil also has combustion gasses). Seems entirely doable - especially if you're willing to dial things down a bit. – Ben Barden May 15 '18 at 15:20
  • Taking 1/2MV^2, the .22LR bullet weighs about 3 grams (a tenth of an ounce) and has a muzzle velocity of 335 meters per second (about 750 mph) which works out to 168 joules. That's really not a lot of energy. – JasonR May 15 '18 at 15:32
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    I saw a video of Penn Jillette getting very angry about this trick because it is not an illusion and people are are paying to see the spectacle of perhaps David Blaine being shot. – Clint Eastwood May 15 '18 at 15:52
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    @JasonR a typical slap to the face delivers approximately 100x that force – DenisS May 15 '18 at 15:56
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    The "steel cup" was a piece of fairly heavy steel -- several ounces at least. And the guy also had some sort of rubber/plastic shields/cushions in his mouth, to absorb the shock. – Daniel R Hicks May 15 '18 at 22:03
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    @clint Penn Jillette has an opinion on everything. –  May 16 '18 at 21:43
  • @laggingreflex a punch to the face carries significantly more force than a bullet does. The reason why bullets are dangerous is because the force is compressed into a small space. When you have a cup and padding to catch the bullet (as in the case with this video) the force is dispersed into a wider area and the penetrative force is significantly dulled. – DenisS May 18 '18 at 20:05

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