[DieHard the Hunter]

> Fire a stream of depleted uranium bullets

Here’s a “stupid-civilian” question: what’s the deal with “depleted uranium”? What does it do that plain ordinary lead doesn’t do? Does it glow in the dark, or explode-on-impact, or what?

[kms61]

It’s super dense.

[neverdem]

Here’s a “stupid-civilian” question: what’s the deal with “depleted uranium”? What does it do that plain ordinary lead doesn’t do? Does it glow in the dark, or explode-on-impact, or what?

It's very dense as in mass per volume. At 19 g/cm3 uranium’s density is similar to that of gold or tungsten, and nearly twice that of lead. IIRC, that's about 19 times the density of water.

[DemforBush]

You’re not far off with the “glow in the dark” remark. Aside from being super-dense, depleted uranium is a pyrophoric metal, which (if I understand the process correctly) can add an incendiary effect when a d-u round penetrates the target’s armor.

(Chemistry majors and tank commanders feel free to correct me here if I’m incorrect in my description :-) )

[redgolum]

Depleted Uranium is very dense, and unlike lead or other elements, it self sharpens as it bores in.

Nasty stuff.

[archy]

Here’s a “stupid-civilian” question: what’s the deal with “depleted uranium”? What does it do that plain ordinary lead doesn’t do? Does it glow in the dark, or explode-on-impact, or what?

It's not a dumb question unless you don't ask it. DU is both sufficiently dense [like lead] and hard to penetrate either rolled steel or *honeycomb* composite armor very effectly. Indeed, part of the armor layers of an Abrams tank is itself DU, because of that density.

But in addition to being dense and reasonably tough, it's pyrosphoric, which means that as chips or flakes are scraped away, as when it penetrates a resisting armor surface, those chips become extremely hot from the friction and ignite, both setting fire to anything combustable they come into contact with, like ammunition, hydraulic lines, fuel or the vehicle's crew members, but also burn up a great quantity of the oxygen insside doing so.

Watching a typical older US or British tank *brew up* with fuel and ammo aboard is spectacular: after a half minute or so the poweder in the main gun rounds begins to burn off and a jet of flame 20-30 feet high roars out of the turret hatches like a rocket engine or giant blowtorch. Soviet tanks like the T55 or T72 are less spectacular, but generally pop their turret off, which may land nearby or sometimes quite far away, depending on what hit it and how much and what kind of ammo was in the gun's automatic loader.

[Lurker]

Depleted Uranium (meaning it's depleted of radioactivity) is much more dense than lead. Therefore it carries more mass. More mass means more kinetic energy delivered to the target.

It has no explosive properties of its own and no, it does not glow in the dark.

LOL.

Best to you my friend.

L

[E=MC2]

Here’s a “stupid-civilian” question: what’s the deal with “depleted uranium”? What does it do that plain ordinary lead doesn’t do? Does it glow in the dark, or explode-on-impact, or what?

Natural uranium contains about 99.3% U-238 and about 0.7% U-235 isotope. They are chemically the same but U-235 is fissionable in reactors or weapons. U-238 is fertile, meaning that if placed into a reactor, it will become Plutonium-239 which is also fissionable. Since U-235 and U-238 are chemically the same, it is very expensive and hard to separate (enrich) the U-235 but it is done for reactors and weapons. What is left, is depleted uranium (depleted in U-235 isotope). U-235 has a shorter half-life than U-238 so it is slightly more radioactive.

[E=MC2]

What does it do that plain ordinary lead doesn’t do?

If left long enough, it becomes ordinary lead! U-238 >>> Pb-206 and U-235 >>> Pb-207.