(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #824

[brethalda <brethalda@yahoo.com>]

How 'but this I'll take my Brown Bess and you can wear your armor, I  shoot you and you will fall down guaranteed.  Bet!  I thought  so!
  
 As far as horses go, their sight is almost as good as a  humans save for color-vision. If their sight was not good they could  not jump obstacles.  www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/science/news/stories/s1586670.htm  
  
  Tourneys are generally one on one and the horses eyes are forced down by the bit and sometimes blinders placed on the horse.
  
  Historian John Keegan relates why an infantry square was very rarely  broken.  Horses will shy away from the standing men especially  with fixed bayonets in a compact formation.  The only reason the  square would fail was panic among the men or the momentum of a dying  charging horses body broke the square.

  Yours in Cidri,
  
  Justin



Quoting brethalda 
:

>>  They may not be able to punch the armor but  they could still knock
>> him off the horse.  Musket in conjunction  with the pike and
>
>> Completely false. If it were true, why doesn't the shooter fall over?
>
>   Huh!  An ounce of .69 to .75 caliber lead travelling at 1000+ feet  
> (typical muzzle velocity for the period) per second hitting a target  
> will knock you down or knock you over in body armor.  I ain't  gonna 
> tickle.  I have seen personally what these bullets do to  
> breastplates.  And why would the shooter fall over?????  The  weapon 
> the bullet propels from is much heavier than the projectile that  is 
> fired.  There is a kick but not enough to knock you over unless  you 
> are weak or not prepared to fire.

Rather than explaining myself, I'll direct you to:

http://intuitor.com/moviephysics/ (Under the Attractive Force Of Glass)

>> eventually bayonet in square ended successful cavalry  charges.  Also
>
>> Um, I think there's several things chasing each other here. The 
>> lance >wasn't
>> being used, for one thing. And cav charges continued to be used until
>> WWI (with
>> lessening effect).
>
>   Unlike humans, horses shy from pointy objects.  Pikes were much  
> longer than lances and they were planted in the ground.  Running  
> past the pike formations and shooting a carbine or brace of pistols 
> was  much safer.

I'm given to understand that horses don't see all that well. And if they shied
from all point objects, jousting would be difficult.

But it is safer to shoot.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com


 				
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