On 14/02/2008, Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:35:09 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>
> >> If they asked an archer to fire an arrow through a distant window, he'd
> >> aim slightly above it. You can't spend dozens of hours every week
> >> shooting arrows at targets without learning to compensate for gravity.
> >
>
> > You are forgetting two importance things here. One, the archer does not
> > have a crosshair that he puts slightly above the window. He is going
> > mostly by feel and experience. I shot quite a few arrows when I was of
> > the age that does that, and as skill builds, the arrows know to find
> > their target. The archer is not moving dials or crosshairs.
>
>
> So what? He's still *aiming*.
>
> I don't know if you did proper archery, as I have, or just played around
> with a toy bow with rubber arrows, but it's only in fairy tales that
> there are magic arrows that "know to find their target". The archer may
> not be able to articulate all the factors involved, but you can damn well
> bet that "aim a little bit higher than the target" is one of the factors
> that he could consciously say.
>
> ("A little bit" is naturally dependent on how distant the target is.)
>
> They weren't idiots, and even in the Middle Ages if you aimed directly at
> a distant target your arrow would drop below where you were aiming.
I did some archery at summer camp for maybe four years, that would be
two months each year. Not a lot, but although I don't remember the
specifics of distance and equipment, I was one of the better kids on
the range. I knew well enough that aim was different at distance than
at close range, but it was more than just "aiming higher".
> > The second thing that you are forgetting is that archery skills are a
> > classified military information. Should one develop a system for
> > improving accuracy, he would not tell it to everyone.
>
>
> What a load of bollocks.
>
> Far from archery skills being a "military secret", archery was a common
> skill amongst both the nobility and the commoners. Nobles hunted game;
> even ladies sometimes hunted small game like rabbits. Professional
> hunters used the bow to feed themselves and their families. People
> learned to use the bow from childhood.
>
> In 1363, England's King Edward III declared that every able-bodied man in
> the kingdom, rich and poor alike, must practice archery at holidays and
> other opportunities. Archery skills weren't a secret known by a few, they
> were extremely common. In modern terms, don't think "knows the codes to
> launch the nuclear missiles", think "knowing how to aim your rifle at a
> target and pull the trigger": even the guys sitting out the war behind a
> desk are expected to know how to shoot a rifle. In some battles, English
> armies were made up of up to nine archers out of every ten fighting men.
> A skill that common was no secret.
>
> The overwhelming military advantage England had over the French was the
> hardware and tactics: the Welsh longbow was a formidable weapon, far more
> powerful than the European bows, and the English nobility relied on it
> while the French treated their peasant soldiers with contempt. The
> English lords might have been just as contemptuous of their archers'
> social class as the French were, but they had nothing but respect for the
> power of their weapon. The French archers were simply outgunned, or
> outbowed if you prefer, and the French knights were brave but stupid.
>
I was unaware of the popularity of the sport. I should have checked my
facts and not posted my opinions. Thank you for the history lesson,
and more importantly, the etiquite lesson.
Dotan Cohen
http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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