Ballistic Clipboard Holds Papers, Stops Bullets

Zothecula writes "Although police officers in most countries are issued bulletproof vests, they don't necessarily wear them at all times — would you want to heave one of those things around for an entire shift? What they do often carry, however, are clipboards. Taking the "every little bit helps" approach, Ohio's IMPACT Armor Technologies has put two and two together, and come up with something that should actually offer some protection — a Ballistic Clipboard."

Comments

Ok, so it holds paper ...

[Surt]

And it stops bullets, which means it can probably stop rock too.

But what about scissors?

Re:Ok, so it holds paper ...

[networkBoy]

TFA says it's effective against knives, scissors are a pair of knives together, so yes. No mention of lizards or Spock though...

Re:Ok, so it holds paper ...

[Dewin]

Knowing people's fanatical devotion to their model M keyboards, I think they'd rather take the bullet than let the keyboard do it :-p

Re:Momentum

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

What's your point? Tiny piece of metal travelling through body shredding internal organs vs. large surface area of clipboard leaving some bruising. I know which one I'd prefer.

So....

[Kjella]

If someone takes a shot at you, how likely is it that you'll be able to hold on to that clipboard in a position where it actually protects something? Better than just dropping the clipboard and running/diving for the nearest cover, exit or whatnot. The only way I can see you manage to keep this in a reasonable position is if you're standing still, in which case you'll look like Adam with the fig leaf because it's hardly a riot shield. What's next, a bullet proof donut box?

Re:Momentum

[TheRaven64]

A typical rifle will fire a 0.0042 kg bullet at a speed of 965 m/s. The clipboard weighs 0.907 kg (more if it has paper on it, obviously). Assuming an elastic collision, conservation of momentum means that the clipboard will be travelling at a little under 4.5m/s immediately after impact (in the real world, it will be less). If it's held in your hands and are not completely limp wristed, then by the time it impacts with your face it will have significantly less kinetic energy than if someone took the clipboard and hit you in the face with it. Clipboards are very easy to obtain, yet are rarely used as offensive weapons, so I presume that this wouldn't hurt very much...

Re:Momentum

[Co0Ps]

You can make the comparison even simpler. Stopping a bullet with the clipboard takes just as much energy as resisting the recoil from the gun you fired with, so with a steady grip on the clipboard you can take the bullet with no problem.