 "Hydrostatic shock" expresses the idea that organs can be damaged by the pressure wave in addition to damage from direct contact with the penetrating projectile.If one interprets the "shock" in the term "hydrostatic shock" to refer to the physiological effects rather than the physical wave characteristics, the question of whether the pressure waves satisfy the definition of "shock wave" is unimportant, and one can consider the weight of scientific evidence and various claims regarding the possibility of a ballistic pressure wave to create tissue damage and incapacitation in living targets.A number of papers describe the physics of ballistic pressure waves created when a high-speed projectile enters a viscous medium.