Board Thread:General Nerf discussion/@comment-27306930-20190529042349

Okay, I have a weird theory based on many discussions I've had here on the Nerf Wiki. Hypothesis: People who don't own a chronograph estimate the dart speeds (aka FPS) of their blasters based on the length of their blasters. The shorter the length of the blaster, the faster they think their darts are going.

For instance, we had a wiki member that swore his Jolt knockoff shot 90 FPS. He was quite adamant about it. So I bought one, tested it, and it shot exactly 70 FPS very consistently. Nerfers with other short length blasters have also claimed they shoot above average. I tested some of those too and found many were actually slightly below average.

Theory: I think it's an optical illusion. When your eyes see a dart exiting the barrel, the closest relative distance your brain has to compare it to is the length of the blaster you're firing. A dart exiting a short blaster looks like it's travelling many times the length of the blaster per second. But a dart exiting a long blaster looks like it's travelling slower because it's travelling many fewer times the length of that blaster per second. So a FireStrike feels like it's faster than a LongStrike.

This might explain why Nerfers "perception" of how fast their blasters shoot varies wildly, despite the fact that nearly all stock N-Strike and Modulus blasters shoot almost exactly 70 FPS. Well, in North America anyway. Your results may vary 😉 