[quote author=IronGoober link=1215377301/0#13 date=1215610770]
This is assuming that there is no air resistance

I'd be willing to bet that very little slinging takes place where there is no air resistance. Sorry if I sound nit-picky, but I'm hyper-aware of what effect air resistance can have on a hurled object. Said objects can lose so much forward velocity that they seem to fall straight down. (They don't, but it seems that way.) Ruins that nice parabolic path.

Working my way through removing that blasted spam but at least it's brought this thread to the top. In light of some of the speed questions of late, very timely

Click on the link in the previous post and see one of the best of our slingers getting a genuine 60 m/s, and that is average over the distance, release velocity would be considerably higher.

Thearos wrote on Apr 20^th, 2009 at 7:25pm:

A quick look around the internet seems to suggest muzzle velocities of the order of 800fps upwards for these firearms. I would not be at all surprised that these greatly exceed the velocities for the sling.

I'm currently reading Rihil's book, and her selectivity with respect to her sources strikes me as a little troubling. To quote her book (p100):
"To penetrate human skin, a blunt projectile must hit at 49 metres per second or more (111mph, or 163fps). To break bone it must hit at 65m/s or more (145mph,213fps)."  I think these numbers are probably about right, although lead glandes are decidedly 'pointy'!

On the next page she writes
"..a good slinger can consistently reach a velocity of 30-31m/s (about 68mph or 100fps), with best performance of 32m/s, and worst of 29m/s."

This is quite ludicrous, despite being in the academic literature. Such velocities are entirely inconsistent with observed ranges (ancient and modern!). I would guess many of the experienced slingers here exceed 50m/s without recourse to ultra-long slings etc. She does reference this web site, but somewhat selectively.

She asserts that Baatz's work must refer to catapults rather than hand slings simply because his figures are significantly higher than the 30m/s or so. Note that such velocities imply a maximum projectile range of less than 100m. This is not rocket science, it's basic physics.

I agree with you about the crack of the sling. This does occur significantly after the departure of the sling from the pocket. The projectile can be of the order of 1m downrange at the time of the whip crack.

Perhaps it is about time to get some realistic measurements from hand slinging into the 'respectable' academic literature before this gets too silly. Any suggestions about how to go about doing this?!

Enjoy your new sling!

PS If you post it here, I'll read it first.

Aussie: I mean no offence by what I wrote, and take none at what you wrote. But whoever Wanderer is, he asked a question; as one who has sat on the readers committee for several peer reviewed Classics and ancient history journals, and as one who's had peer reviewed papers accepted, and rejected, I thought I had the expertise to offer a reaction.

Wanderer: I guess I can hear a dry chuckle, and I deserve it. But my suggestion still holds: organize a real bit of  experimental archaeo, and publish it in a journal. Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies had plenty of those in the day (e.g. guys timing how long it took to make a Dacian-war scythe, then photographing the impac of the war-scythe on reconstructed Roman armour, etc).

What's the guy's name, who does a lot of Roman experimental archaeology ? Not Baatz-- Marcus junkermann, who reconstructed a Roman cav unit. It might interest him.

Thearos wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2009 at 4:14am:

Thearos,
Thanks for the suggestions and the above link. I will have to spare some time to trawl a little in the current archaeology literature and get a sense for the style. Rihil's book quotes a number of sources to which I have no access. and I would like to read them if possible also.

Quote:


Fx 2000

With 225 gr. you are with out doubt a tough guy! I don’t own a video cam. How do you determine the frame count?

tom