10
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How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
Summary similar to the other answers
Thanks for the clarifications and improvements. I've retracted my close vote.
Basic math: A cylinder 50 feet long with a radius of 1.75 feet has a volume of 481 ...
- 117k
6
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How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
Poorly
The likely "full metal" for the mid-1400s would be cast iron. A bolt a metre in diameter and 15 metres long comprised of cast iron would mass about 90 tonnes.
Medieval ballistae used ...
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3
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How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
It wouldn't, no one in their right mind would design and build such a machine. The cost and labour would be prohibitive and ...
- 23.6k
3
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How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
You do realise that a 100 metric tonne bolt is the weight of about a Boeing 757. Having a ballista launch something like that is not really feasible, not even with today's technology.
I would suggest ...
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2
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How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
(...) scaled-up ballistas designed to launch 50-foot full-metal spears across a distance of ~250 yards (...) The question is, with technology equivalent to that of Europe in the Middle Ages, how would ...
- 136k
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