science

Silver bullet

Silver bullet is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Silver bullet rather than just read about it. In short: In folklore, a silver bullet is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term silver bullet is also sometimes used similarly to "magic bullet" as a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin c. 1930 was a "silver bullet" or magic bullet that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cur…

Key takeaways

Silver bullet belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Silver bullet to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Silver bullet from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In folklore, a silver bullet is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf, vampire, witch, or other supernatural being. The term silver bullet is also sometimes used similarly to "magic bullet" as a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin c. 1930 was a "silver bullet" or magic bullet that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections.

In folklore Some authors asserted that the idea of the werewolf's supposed vulnerability to bullets cast from silver dates back to the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal killed by the hunter Jean Chastel in the year 1767. However, the allegations of Chastel purportedly using a gun loaded with silver bullets are derived from a distorted detail based primarily on Henri Pourrat's Histoire fidèle de la bête en Gévaudan (1946). In this novel, the French writer imagines that the beast was shot thanks to medals of the Virgin Mary, worn by Jean Chastel in his hat and then melted down to make bullets. An account of a resident of Jämtland, Sweden describes bullets of silver used as the means to kill were-bears in 1936. Inability of the great bear being invulnerable except to silver bullets also features in the 1891 novel Gösta Berling's Saga. Swedish folklore also describes silver bullets as effective against the skogsrå, and against the beguiling mermaid (sjöjungfru), as also told in Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. A Swedish superstition held that carrying a human leg taken from the churchyard made one invulnerable except to a silver bullet. In Icelandic folklore, offspring of a fox and cat such as Skoffín, Skuggabaldur, and Finngálkn are said to be shot with silver bullet or silver button. In the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale of The Two Brothers, a bullet-proof witch is shot down by silver buttons, fired from a gun. In some epic folk songs about Bulgarian rebel leader Delyo, he is described as invulnerable to normal weapons, driving his enemies to cast a silver bullet in order to murder him.

In popular culture

A number of fictional Wild West heroes used silver bullets as weapons, to symbolize their purity of heart. The best known of these was the Lone Ranger in all his incarnations: after solving the problem of the week, he would leave a silver bullet behind as his mark. Clayton Moore, who played the Ranger in the television series, was known to give away silver bullet props, made from aluminum, to fans in the 1950s. Fantasy-horror has continued the use of silver bullets as monster-slayers. In an untitled early Batman serial from 1939, written by Gardner Fox for Detective Comics issues 31 and 32, Batman declares that "only a silver bullet may kill a vampire," and swiftly forges such a weapon to defeat the coven of vampires who kidnapped Bruce Wayne's fiancée. The 1941 film The Wolf Man, and its sequels and spinoffs, codified silver (whether in bullet form or otherwise) as the definitive death-dealer for werewolves, to the point where this weakness is often regarded as exclusive to lycanthropes. Notable film examples are Silver Bullet (1985) and Cursed (2005), with the latter being in part a self-referential spoof of the 1941 film. The Strain novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan return the silver bullet to its earlier status as a weapon against the strigoi, who are broadly analogous to vampires.

Ballistic effectiveness Silver bullets differ from lead bullets in several respects. Lead has a 10% higher density than silver, so a silver bullet will have a little less mass than a lead bullet of identical dimensions. Pure silver is less malleable than lead and falls between lead and copper in terms of hardness (1.5 < 2.5 < 3.0 Mohs) and shear modulus (5.6 < 30 < 48 GPa). A silver bullet accepts the rifling of a gun barrel. The terminal impact is somewhat speculative and will depend on a variety of factors including bullet size and shape, flight distance, and target material. At short ranges, the silver bullet will most likely give better penetration due to its higher shear modulus, and will not deform as much as a lead bullet. A 2007 episode of MythBusters demonstrated a greater penetration depth of lead bullets versus silver bullets; the experiment utilized a 250-grain (16 g) lead slug in a .45-caliber Colt long shell vs a lighter, 190-grain (12 g) silver slug fired at closer range. Another MythBusters episode, from 2012, showed that silver bullets are less accurate than lead bullets when fired from an M1 Garand. Michael Briggs also did some experiments with silver bullets compared to lead bullets. After making a custom mold to ensure that the sizes of the silver bullets were comparable to the lead bullets, he fired them. He found that the silver bullets were slightly slower than the lead bullets and less accurate.

See also Golden hammer List of topics characterized as pseudoscience M829A1, nicknamed the "Silver Bullet" Magic bullet (medicine) "No Silver Bullet" Silver Arrows (race cars) Silver lining (idiom)

Explanatory notes

References

External links

More on the confusion between silver bullet and magic bullet Casting Silver Bullets Lone Ranger Go Away. Classic 1964 Article

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Silver bullet

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Silver bullet claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Silver bullet before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Silver bullet ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Silver bullet

In research: Silver bullet appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Silver bullet in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Silver bullet is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bullets, English-language idioms, Folklore, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Silver bullet outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Silver bullet in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Silver bullet means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Silver bullet out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Silver bullet in simple terms?

Why does Silver bullet matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Silver bullet?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Silver bullet.