Headline: MythBusters Stunt Sends Cannonball Flying Through Dublin [California] Home
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/cannonball-fired-mythbusters-stunt-goes-through-du/nFwRj/ In addition to reading the News-article, be sure to watch the TV-news video. Click the link at the end of the article.
Cylindical projectiles tended to burrow into the ground when they hit it (and thus, stop), but cannonballs tended to bounce and keep on going ...often, bouncing several times. Artillerists used that tendency, especially to breal up enemy troop formations. Confederate Major John Pelham ("the Gallant Pelham") famously did it at First Fredericksburg, Dec. 1862. Note that the article says the cannonball first bounced off the range's protective berm, then went through a house's 1st-floor door, exited next to a 2-floor window, then hit a street's pavement, bounced off another house's roof, and came to rest after shattering a minivan's window. I wish they'd showed the cannonball, so we'd know its size. Based on the size of past Mythbusters cannonballs and the size of the holes in the house, this cannonball was either a 6-pounder (3.58" diameter ball) or perhaps a 4-pounder (3.1" ball). You can imagine what a bigger cannonball, like a 4.52-inch 12-pounder Solid Shot, could do.
Regards,
Pete
