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A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile(s) at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically black powder or cordite, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore firearms) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Beginning around 700 AD, scientists and inventors in... MORE

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile(s) at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically black powder or cordite, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore firearms) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Beginning around 700 AD, scientists and inventors in Ancient China developed different grades of gunpowder and different types of firearms, including single-shot smooth-bore fire lances, multi-barreled guns, multiple-launch artillery rockets and the first cannon in the world made from cast bronze. Several centuries later, in late Dark Age Europe, the term "firearm" was used in Old English to denote the arm in which the match was held that was used to light the touch hole on the hand cannon. The term was a variation on the contemporary terms of bow arm and drawing arm still used in archery. Due to the effects of firing the ordnance (barrel) at the LESS