This remarkable video on YouTube demonstrates the power of good engineering in the most Germanic way possibly. In the video, a black beret-wearing member of the German Army's panzer corps pours a beer into a stein mounted on a tank's 120-millimeter gun barrel. The Leopard II main battle tank then rolls across bouncy terrain and doesn't spill a drop.

Tanks are fearsome weapons, combining firepower, protection, and mobility in a single package. One hundred years after their introduction, their ability to deliver a powerful offensive blow is still unparalleled. Yet for much of their history, tanks had to choose between shooting or moving. The slightest bump or jarring movement threw the tank's gun off target, ruining the gunner's aim. As a result, an attacking tank had to stop in order to shoot its gun—making it an easy target.

Modern tanks can now move and shoot accurately at the same time thanks to the vehicle's suspension and the two-axis stabilization of the main gun. These are the same features that allow it to keep the stein of suds so steady. The tank's torsion bar suspension buffs out the rough terrain, giving the tank a smoother ride.

The other important feature is the use of gyroscope stabilizers. Two gyros—one for gun elevation (vertical) and the other for turret rotation (horizontal)—keep track of where the gun is pointed. When the tank starts moving, the ballistic targeting computer orders the tank's hydraulics to make the necessary corrections to keep the gun on target. If the tank bounces up, the hydraulics correct downward, and so on.

In practice, this means that a tank gunner picks a target and holds it in his crosshairs—and that's all he does. The tank does the rest, automatically, without further input by the crew. This ensures that a moving tank can hit a target at 2,000 meters with ninety percent accuracy—or deliver your beer without spilling an ounce.

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