Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug Sundseth" data-source="post: 4921501" data-attributes="member: 52196">First, some basic physics:  Energy in a closed system is conserved.  The energy from the release plus the energy from falling from the release point to the final point (usually insignificant) equals the energy dissipated in air friction plus the energy transferred to the target plus the energy remaining in the arrow (in the case of a through-and-through shot).  Energy dissipated in the target is what does the damage; the way it is dissipated determines how much damage.Momentum in a closed system is also conserved. In a system of arrow plus target, the mass * velocity of the arrow plus the mass * velocity of the target will stay constant.Second, longbows:  According to test done by the Royal Armouries (now at Leeds), a period bodkin-pointed arrow will not significantly penetrate a breastplate, even at point-blank range and a perfectly perpendicular strike.  The demonstration I saw showed less than one inch of penetration in that scenario, which would probably not reach the skin of the target after considering gaps between breastplate and support and the thickness of the arming doublet.  In any case, it would be quite unlikely to cause serious damage.  Further, any glancing blow would skip off of almost any armor.  (For reference, a 55-gallon drum isn't really the same as armor plate.)  If you can manage to miss the plates (which is notably easier with horse barding than it is with human armor), penetration is much less of a problem.Third, the myth of the longbow:  The English/Welsh longbow was a decent weapon, and it was quite important in Europe during the 100-Years War.  That said, it was not particularly better than (in fact not quite as good as) steppe archers' composite horse bows.  The pull strengths of the latter were higher and the arrows were lighter, resulting in higher "muzzle" energies, faster rates of fire, longer ranges, and better accuracy for the horse bow.</blockquote>

Verification