Ballistic

I was watching a marathon of Mythbusters over the weekend, and over the course of several episodes I noticed that they often used a substance known as ballistics gel to test impacts upon the human body. This made me wonder: what is ballistics gel?

Ballistics gel is a special type of gel formula that replicates the characteristics of human flesh, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. The gel is most commonly used in the science of ballistics, which the AED defines as the study of the dynamics of projectiles, their motion and their effects.

Ballistic can also be used as an adjective, describing something related to ballistics, or as slang meaning "to become very angry or irrational".

Ballistics is derived from the Latin word ballistas, which the AED says is borrowed from the Greek word balistes, coming from the verb ballein, meaning to throw. The ballista was an ancient and medieval machine of warfare used to throw heavy projectiles, according to the AED. It relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with torsion springs instead of a prod, the springs consisting of several loops of twisted skeins. Early versions ejected heavy darts or spherical stone projectiles of various sizes for siege warfare.