So, can you sling lead hard enough to melt a gland?

Ancient authors thought so, as quoted on this site in
"The Sling in Literature"  by Michael Gillelan:
"It was a common misconception in antiquity, from
Aristotle onward, that bullets propelled by slings
travelled so fast that they became molten. Lucretius
makes this mistake (6.178-179, tr. H.A.J. Munro): "A
leaden ball in whirling through a long course even
melts" (plumbea vero / glans etiam longo cursu
volvenda liquescit), and so does Vergil, Aeneid
9.586-589: The hero Mezentius, putting aside his
spears, with tightened thong whirled thrice around his
head the whirring sling and split his adversary's
forehead with the molten bullet and stretched him out
flat over a great stretch of sand."


Between Heroic Hyperbole and the Slinger's Stretch, who knows where the truth flies.  However, observing the deformation that lead glandes undergo upon impact, I believe this represents at least
partial melting.

http://www.slinging.org/images/fitzgerald/leadglandes.jpg
scale = 1 cm

I whipped a 2 oz lead egg sinker into a concrete
block. Sling only, no hammers or other tricks.  It
bounced back 3 meters and was still hot when I picked
it up.  It shortened 22% and widened 11% compared to
its unused brothers in my pouch.  (I'm thinking
without checking the Latin that Glandes must be
masculine by definition).

Molten Glandes? Could be, Could be.

http://www.slinging.org/images/fitzgerald/eggsinkers.JPG


These Egg Sinkers are available in multiple sizes in fishing tackle departments. Less than 2 oz are too light, over 4 oz are getting pretty heavy.  Since Energy = Mass x Velocity squared, you don't want too high of a mass because you really lose energy if you can't keep up a good whipping velocity.

Happy slinging.

No they do not melt in flight. Yes the ancient authors believed this, much as they thought a lot of other rather silly things, and your point about the havoc inflicted on a sling bullet when it strikes a wall  may well be the source of the story. Try reading Pliny for an example of a genuinely intelligent man, using Scientific method but getting some really mad ideas.

But they don't. Try slinging onto grass - no deformation. The deformation is caused by something soft (the lead) striking something hard (the concrete) at velocity. The heat is produced by the energy created by this deformation.  A similar result can be obtained by impacting a face into a car dashboard at high velocity, but the face doesn't become molten!

Like those sinkers tho'. How much do you pay for them?


Pat

I've learned to take the Ancient sources carefully. They also tended to exagerrate on  a lot of the stuff ( No really, there I was, me against a hundred, an olive pit my only weapon) similar to fishing and hunting stories today. Human nature I suppose. I like the story of sling stones penetrating through bronze armor, though.

Walmart has them for about a dollar a bag with 2 oz having 4 pieces.

Sporting stores carry the 2-8 oz range running from 25 cents to a dollar for the heavy ones.