Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Rivkin · 3rd July 2005, 08:14 PM

In all honesty - I can imagine (barely) how one can use a movable weight in a throwing weapon, hoping to create some complex gyroscopic motion that would create a restoring force and stabilizing the trajectory as a result.

I can imagine using an adjustable grip or pommel to manage the balance and so on. I can imagine using an axe, the weapon with a high angular momentum.

I can't imagine any reasonable use for a moving mercury or anything in a sword. Suppresion of oscillations is most reasonably done by putting a tuned pitchfork into pommel. If this pitchfork is surrounded by an extremely viscous material, i.e. overdamped, you can have a very efficient transform of oscillations into heat (that's what they do in modern "professional" tools, like hammers). Another way is to design a sword in the way that all it's oscillations somehow negatively interfere with each other, so it basically damps itself (this method is way more complex, but that's what used in modern cameras to suppress the vibrations from shutter/mirror release).

Using a bottle of mercury for this purpose is rather strange.

3rd July 2005, 08:14 PM	#35
Rivkin Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 655	In all honesty - I can imagine (barely) how one can use a movable weight in a throwing weapon, hoping to create some complex gyroscopic motion that would create a restoring force and stabilizing the trajectory as a result. I can imagine using an adjustable grip or pommel to manage the balance and so on. I can imagine using an axe, the weapon with a high angular momentum. I can't imagine any reasonable use for a moving mercury or anything in a sword. Suppresion of oscillations is most reasonably done by putting a tuned pitchfork into pommel. If this pitchfork is surrounded by an extremely viscous material, i.e. overdamped, you can have a very efficient transform of oscillations into heat (that's what they do in modern "professional" tools, like hammers). Another way is to design a sword in the way that all it's oscillations somehow negatively interfere with each other, so it basically damps itself (this method is way more complex, but that's what used in modern cameras to suppress the vibrations from shutter/mirror release). Using a bottle of mercury for this purpose is rather strange.