RoyUK wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 9:15pm:


A thrown projectile does not gain momentum; at the release all of the momentum the projectile has or ever will have (unless ammo has rocket assist) begins to degrade due to drag forces. I always try to throw with the same force, whether the range is 100+ feet or 10+ feet ... the 10 foot shot will arrive with more momentum as the drag forces have had less time to act on the projectile ....
imao ... ... and if that story is not true it should be.

mo·men·tum 
/mōˈmentəm/NounThe quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
The impetus gained by a moving object.

Just an average shot from close range,with a decent "pebble" of 150g ~5.3oz will dent/crack a skull on the forehead part. A good one will implant it into the skull,halfway sticking out. I know that. Period.

Please don't call slings slingshots. it drives me absolutly insane.


anyway... drag outweighs gravity EXCEPT on stuff past 45 degrees downhill(from horizontal)...

very, very few armies would be stupid enough to charge up a 45 degree slope longer than a few yards.

it does seem that it takes a few seconds for the projectile to stabilize in the air(actually only a second or so)... maybe that's what you are thinking of.

Quote:


a 'knock on the head'.

It's clear you have very little experience and knowlege of slings in action.
In The most recent scientific attempt to replicate the event louis pons livermore hit an head sized target with 3 times the force required to kill.

I myself in a simulated attack uphill at a target 50 meters away was putting enough power behind my throws to send the missiles - in a flat trajectory - over 50 metres beyond the actual target when i missed.

At the distances involved in a duel - I NEVER missed the target and with 5 shots at a large head - I can pretty much guarentee a good slinger would NEVER lose a duel with a man armed only with a sword or spear.

You're appear to be making the mistake most historians make - pete the hillfort man is a rare exception -  and that is to base your conclusions on your own actual or perceived ability.

For a close quarter battle david would have used large pebbles in the 8oz - 225g weight range. Which is most probably why he was only carrying five.
And he'd have thrown them with sufficient force to bring down an ox let alone a man.

Bear in mind david was nota callow youth but a young man and atrained warrior who had honed his slinging skills over many years asa shepherd where the sling would have been used daily to both herd the flocks and defend them from predators.
Any hit anywhere on goliaths body would have caused significant damage, anything from broken bones to internal injuries. Armour notwithstanding.
In the right hands a sling is a seriously dangerous weapon.
Goliath had bugger all chance of walking out of that arena.
   
lets put it this way the hardest throwing slinger in the modern era is Larry bray. He slung a stone 425 metres. Had that stone been intercepted by a human head in the first 20 metres of that flight - that human would have been heading straight to the morgue.

It's a bit more serious than a 'knock on the head' 

david might have gotten a concussion and been knocked out cold and soon to die, and david beheaded him

Hey RoyUK! Knowledge has the power to set one free.The only constant thing is change. Though with our perception,a few years can appear a long time,that's just a milisecond in eternity.
This is not a permanent situation,nor for you,nor for the world.
And if you will,be the change you want to see in the world.

You can be David with only a sling and 5 stones,and slew The Giant.

I use a simple rule: What our ancestors didn't eat or wash themselves with for the last couple million years,it's not necessary,and probably harmful to our bodies, especially with higher exposure to them.

P.S. besides the last 200 years,when a bunch of clever guys were born.