Oo! Oo! [Raises hand] I’ve followed the trajectory of a bullet with my own eyes! Admittedly, it was with tracers.
But, I bet in the history of firearms, there have been projectiles of such size, fired at such low velocity, that you could follow them with your eyes in the daytime.
Still, if you can’t follow the exact trajectory, all the more reason to assume that the conventional wisdom is correct.
But, I bet in the history of firearms, there have been projectiles of such size, fired at such low velocity, that you could follow them with your eyes in the daytime.
Some book I’ve read lists the ability to watch the arrow in flight as one of the advantages of the bow compared to the rifle (i.e. every round is a tracer round).
I was moderately bothered by that as well but I went ahead and trusted my memory. Continued research is not finding the section I was thinking about. This is bizarre because I don’t thing I’ve read anything else that that could have come from- maybe I had a copy that was embellished? Maybe I’ve forgotten the name of some samurai text that would have included that as a tip? The last seems most likely, since I believe that was the only time people were actually comparing the two.
A golf ball is a good example of something light enough that air resistance has a high impact.
I doubt people could follow the trajectory of a cannonball with their eyes. Ever tried to follow the trajectory of a bullet?
Oo! Oo! [Raises hand] I’ve followed the trajectory of a bullet with my own eyes! Admittedly, it was with tracers.
But, I bet in the history of firearms, there have been projectiles of such size, fired at such low velocity, that you could follow them with your eyes in the daytime.
Still, if you can’t follow the exact trajectory, all the more reason to assume that the conventional wisdom is correct.
Agreed.
If you’re standing directly behind (or in front of, I suppose) the cannon/gun it gets a lot easier, since the angular rate is much lower.
At night with the flood lights behind you, it’s quite easy to watch the arced trajectory of handgun bullets.
Some book I’ve read lists the ability to watch the arrow in flight as one of the advantages of the bow compared to the rifle (i.e. every round is a tracer round).
Not Sun Tzu, surely. Dates are uncertain, but it appears that he lived at least seven centuries before the probable invention of gunpowder.
I was moderately bothered by that as well but I went ahead and trusted my memory. Continued research is not finding the section I was thinking about. This is bizarre because I don’t thing I’ve read anything else that that could have come from- maybe I had a copy that was embellished? Maybe I’ve forgotten the name of some samurai text that would have included that as a tip? The last seems most likely, since I believe that was the only time people were actually comparing the two.