Anything can pierce skin, when accelerated to fast enough speeds.  That a playing card can do this is no surprise.

But 6mm should be enough to cut the carotid artery, causing death.  So if you were extremely lucky (or perhaps unlucky), it could in theory kill a person.

I just love throwing cards. There are two ways to actually hurt someone, and actually cause quite a sting without drawing blood.

The first is the Thurston Method. Hold the card between the index finger and the middle finger, grasping the card tightly right at the corner. Do this while holding the card lengthwise (obviously) instead of widthwise, and lengthwise will get you more distance and spin. Place your thumb lightly on the side of your hand, then throw.

But some more information on this first. Firstly, never try this on anyone - Seriously, it stings. And if you're new to this and trying it on something, then the card is likely to miss your target by a few feet. Also, use the best cards you can afford. It works OK with cheap cards, but not well enough. Get some proper cards.

Another bit of advice. When you want to get serious with this kind of stuff, then get yourself some loose wrists (no, you can't buy these at the store). To get these 'loose' wrists, squeeze some sort of stressball filled with a load of sand for a few weeks. The advantage of having 'loose' wrists is obviously that they're more flexible than normal wrists. The main factor of the technique used to throw cards is flexibility. You need to bend your wrist right back when throwing, otherwise you are just going to end up with an ordinary fluttering card.

Work on your skills of throwing cards, and you'll surprised how good you can get with throwing ordinary playing cards. Try it yourself. If you have any questions on the technique of throwing playing cards, just ask me.

One more thing - When throwing the card, hold it at an angle, and hold it straight. Don't grip it too tight. And also, it's all in the wrist. No matter how strong you are, you still won't be able to throw a card very far. It's wrist that does the trick, not build.

And for more information, Click here.

Last edited by Devanté (2006-08-25 16:09:07)

lol if anything can hurt someone at a accelerated speed then what about a tissue?

While you're right that anything can cause damage if thrown fast enough, I think that for tissues to be fast enough to cause pain they'd need to be travelling much faster than anyone could throw them.

Cards are different because they are flat. This means that air resistance doesn't slow them down too much, and that when they reach their target, all the force of the throw is directed to a very small area, which means more pressure which means more pain. Tissues would slow down quickly when thrown and only be a mild annoyance to anyone they hit.

First person on this forum to get a tissue up to that speed gets a prize.