10-31-2011, 11:02 PM
Well I didn't know where to put these so I figured this was as good place as any.
2 Weeks ago we took our definite Medieval 3 Span Ballista (notice the anacronism?)to the field for a series of tests.
We took a Chrony Chronograph to measure the exit velocity (we were expecting around 200ft/sec with 50% torsion strenght) so we were very much suprised with the supersonic speeds the chronograph registered. It registered 3 times with our ranging bolts. I'll let you see the photos now, and I'll provide the explanation bellow.
Chrony Supersonic Measurment:
[attachment=2013]Supersonico_1025.jpg[/attachment]
Mad Scientist at Work:
[attachment=2014]Moneyshot_1067tb.jpg[/attachment]
Wall at 80m hit by a regular bolt:
[attachment=2015]Paredea80m_1217tb.jpg[/attachment]
So why did we reach those supersonic speeds?
Well on other tests we got an average exit speed of 186 ft/sec (around what we were expecting)but on the ranging bolts we got speeds over 1000 ft/sec.
So the difference must have been in the bolts. And it was. Our Ranging Bolts are painted in White and Red, or White and Yellow, each with 10cm on a 105cm long bolt. So what happened was that the Chrony registered the change in color and not the ends of the bolt.
So we were happy, then amazed and finally our logic brain kicked in and we figured it out (way too fast for our emotional brain).
2 Weeks ago we took our definite Medieval 3 Span Ballista (notice the anacronism?)to the field for a series of tests.
We took a Chrony Chronograph to measure the exit velocity (we were expecting around 200ft/sec with 50% torsion strenght) so we were very much suprised with the supersonic speeds the chronograph registered. It registered 3 times with our ranging bolts. I'll let you see the photos now, and I'll provide the explanation bellow.
Chrony Supersonic Measurment:
[attachment=2013]Supersonico_1025.jpg[/attachment]
Mad Scientist at Work:
[attachment=2014]Moneyshot_1067tb.jpg[/attachment]
Wall at 80m hit by a regular bolt:
[attachment=2015]Paredea80m_1217tb.jpg[/attachment]
So why did we reach those supersonic speeds?
Well on other tests we got an average exit speed of 186 ft/sec (around what we were expecting)but on the ranging bolts we got speeds over 1000 ft/sec.
So the difference must have been in the bolts. And it was. Our Ranging Bolts are painted in White and Red, or White and Yellow, each with 10cm on a 105cm long bolt. So what happened was that the Chrony registered the change in color and not the ends of the bolt.
So we were happy, then amazed and finally our logic brain kicked in and we figured it out (way too fast for our emotional brain).
