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Comment count is 25
Cena_mark - 2016-07-24

Glad we finally have this issue settled.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

Yes, I'm glad we've already settled the fact that this video is nonsense.


Cena_mark - 2016-07-24

It's not nonsense, your reply was nonsense. Anyhow it would be dedicated archers who would use those massive long bows. Samurai were expert in all weapons. They couldn't run around carrying giant bows all day. Make a bigger umi and it's far superior to the longbow.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

In addition to the points already made, I should add that the video footage *directly contradicts* the narrator's own statements. At 2:43, the narrator states that "the yumi arrow flies straight". Yet the yumi arrow is quite clearly NOT flying straight. It is affected by the archer's paradox, and is flying at an angle of maybe 15-20 degrees off center, tilted towards the right. In fact, unlike the longbow arrow, the yumi arrow doesn't even manage to right itself; it strikes the target at an oblique angle, further dissipating the bow's already meagre power.

Typical garbage. Smithsonian Channel should stick to Nazis and UFOs.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

My reply was based on firm logic and historical evidence. If you want to compare historical bows, then you need to compare historical bows. You cannot just arbitrarily compare two bows at the same draw weight when, in reality, those bows had completely different draw weights. Again, Honda Civics and McLarens - the methodology is flawed, and therefor, the conclusions drawn are invalid.


Anaxagoras - 2016-07-24

No, actually. The yumi arrow *is* flying straight. They show 2 slow-mo yumi shots. The first shot seems to be a little off-kilter partly because of the camera angle, and partly because the archer himself launched it a little off kilter. But the arrow seemed to go exactly where it was launched.

The longbow arrow, on the other hand, did a weird curving thing which I really don't understand, and it seemed to correct itself before hitting the target. (Which I also don't understand.)

Anyways, like I said, I don't know this topic; I'm just basing my comments off the video.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

Well, which is it? Does it merely "appear" to be off-kilter, because of the camera angle? Or is it actually off-kilter, because when it was shot, it went off-kilter? It either is or it isn't (and it is).


Anaxagoras - 2016-07-24

In the first shot, near as I can tell, it's off-kilter because the archer launched it that way. In the second shot, its flight appears perfect.

In both cases, it seems like the yumi's arrow flight remains straight. (i.e. it's true to how the archer launches it)


El Zapatista - 2016-07-24

I hate to be that guy*, but "umi" is the Japanese word for ocean. The word for bow is "yumi."

*Actually, I revel in my That Guyness.


Cena_mark - 2016-07-24

Thanks. Now tell me, do you agree with the conclusion made by this video?


Anaxagoras - 2016-07-24

Also, there are two kinds of Japanese bows: Daikyus (which I'd heard of) and hankyus (which I just learned about now from wikipedia).

I have no idea which type of yumi we're seeing here.


El Zapatista - 2016-07-24

I won't pretend that I know enough about this topic to say either way. That weird spelling mistake bugged the hell out me, though.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

No, the word is actually "umi". Wikipedia, the internet, and Japanese people are wrong.

Cena, they're trolling you. Keep the title as it is.


Bus_Aint_Comin - 2016-07-25

"Wikipedia, the internet, and Japanese people are wrong."

ladies and gentlemen, EvilHomer in all their glory.


Mr. Purple Cat Esq. - 2016-07-24

Were these contemporaneous? I would imagine that instead of further developing the longbow we moved onto guns which dont require someone to train their whole lives to use.


William Burns - 2016-07-24

They seem to perform almost identically, and since they'd be used mostly for volley fire, it seems real dumb to test them at about 20 feet. Superior European arrows would make all the difference at long range.

Anyway, the "ultimate bow of the middle ages" was a crossbow.


William Burns - 2016-07-24

And the ultimate swords were made of Damascus steel. Blow a katana apart bro.


Cena_mark - 2016-07-24

Then a katana made of Damascus steel would be the greatest sword ever. If anything they should take all the Damascus steel and melt them into katanas.


William Burns - 2016-07-24

Woulda, coulda, shoulda, the story of the Japanese Empire.


EvilHomer - 2016-07-24

Katanas were made of pig-iron, and if you made one out of Damascus steel, all you'd wind up with is a crude saber with an inadequate crossguard and a really short blade.


Robin Kestrel - 2016-07-24

I think the takeaway here is that it would really hurt to get shot with either one of them.


Ninehells - 2016-07-24

And that Discovery/TLC/Smithsonian can only find wankers, or makes everyone they bring on look like one.


Gmork - 2016-07-25

Archers - the useful cowards of ancient combat.


mustard - 2016-07-25

Like gun owners, but useful.


William Burns - 2016-07-25

A more useful metaphor would be that they are the equivalent of drone, missile and airial gunship operators in modern times. Indirect fire that isn't wholly indiscriminate. The fire control computer onboard Apache helicopters is called even "longbow," to drive my metaphor home.

Modern riflemen are probably more analogous to pikemen or something.


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