……….before the bolt takes a munch out of my trailer, we see this speeding torpedo appear.

Here is the video from yesterday that this snapshot was taken from.    20100309124009(1) If you play this vid, and stare at the spot indicated by the pink arrow, you’ll see what I mean.

Because the sad truth is:  the broken strand discovered yesterday may spell the end of any primo performance from Firefly for a while;  for now at least, I will need to make the most of the data that we have.  I find myself wondering if there is any good way to measure the velocity by analyzing the video.  It would be joyous to confirm that the above shot was the 307.7 fps claimed by the chronograph.  It is not that I necessarily distrust this particular reading, but it would be marvy to know for sure.

I will take the rest of the morning to be all CSI and go out to the crime scene and measure the distance from the point in space that the bolt appears,  to it’s final resting place in the side of the utility trailer.  (see below).

Report back later…..

………….It’s later.   My friend and neighbor Richard Rough stopped by to help with the field work.   I looked everywhere,  but couldn’t find him a badge.

The tennis ball above Richard’s head is a very close approximation of where the tail of the bolt first appeared in the video.  Distance from the ball to the impact point on the angle iron is 279 inches.  The length of the bolt is 33 1/2″, and so the tip of the bolt had to transverse 245.5″ from the time it appears on the video to the sound of its impact.

A long pause ensues while I digest all this nonsense………………..

Well that is a fairly stupid way of going about it.  We have the sound of the catapult going off and the sound of impact.  Range is 53 yards.  Measure the time between the two sounds and we pretty well have it.  (Thanks Gareth.  I hadn’t actually forgotten your suggestion.  Just got a little lost trying to plonk down all the data before moving the trailer.)

Although the above data is accurate, this exercise was probably a waste of time.  Ah well!, Richard and I had fun playing CSI.   I never promised this blog would be anything other than a blow by blow account of all our antics here at the little catapult factory.  Nothing like warty exploits to spice up the day.

Speaking of,  “little catapult factory”, we now have a sign and everything.

Cheer up people hoping for Lejre.  The Catapult Gods haven’t given up on us yet.

One Response to “A finely diced second ………”

  1. 12:22 pm, 11 March, 2010 р.
    Captn Chronograph says:

    Here’s just what you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjeQbDMzAak

    free audacity software download from internet.

    Once installed on a laptop, you can immediately doublecheck your chrony results with a little math. Just watch the vid a few times to figure out how to use software correctly. It works.

    Joel.

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