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Crossbows: They Look Cool · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
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Speaker 1: that makes this stuff you should know? As if you
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Speaker 1: didn't know, you know, you know, Yeah, we trust you.
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Speaker 1: We worked for a website called how Stuff Works dot
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Speaker 1: com and we're going to take an article at random
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Speaker 1: from the site right now. I've never seen it before,
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Speaker 1: and we're just going to start talking about it. You're ready, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: I'm spinning the wheel and stop. Oh shoot, what is it?
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Speaker 1: Almost landed on the batmobile? Oh? What is it? Instead?
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Speaker 1: I can't I can't be bothered to look to the
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Speaker 1: right crossbows? Okay, how crossbows work? All right, let's start
0:55
Speaker 1: talking just off the top of my head, Chuck. Have
0:58
Speaker 1: you ever seen the TV show Walk King Dead? Awesome
1:02
Speaker 1: show in nice choice of weapon. I know you saw it.
1:05
Speaker 1: I just got into it. You mean I watched the
1:07
Speaker 1: first six episodes the first season. It's so good. Have
1:11
Speaker 1: you started season two yet? Not? Yes? So don't tell
1:12
Speaker 1: me anything. Okay, I don't want to know if Nick
1:14
Speaker 1: Fisher dies, they're still zombies out there. Okay, good, okay, good,
1:19
Speaker 1: Although I have to say I'm not very happy with
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Speaker 1: that one subplot of like the sexual tension subplot, that
1:25
Speaker 1: conflict that's brewing and hasn't really so um. But overall,
1:31
Speaker 1: I think it's an awesome show, and I think, like
1:35
Speaker 1: you said, Darryl Dixon's choice of weapon is pretty awesome.
1:38
Speaker 1: If not very practical, it's pretty awesome. And that is Yeah. Yeah,
1:44
Speaker 1: it is quiet because you don't want to alert the
1:45
Speaker 1: zombies the geeks, but he has a finite amount of
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Speaker 1: arrows or bolts that he has to go retrieve from
1:52
Speaker 1: the heads of zombies that he's just shot between the
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Speaker 1: eyes after they fall. I thought was him. I'd hit
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Speaker 1: up a hardware store or a sporting good store, get
2:00
Speaker 1: a bunch of those like in Red Dawn. Yeah, load up. Yeah.
2:04
Speaker 1: Every time I watched that show, I keep telling Emily,
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Speaker 1: I'm like, they have everything they want. Like there, it's
2:09
Speaker 1: like a struggle to get gas. There's cars everywhere, and
2:13
Speaker 1: it hasn't been that long. It's not like a hundred
2:14
Speaker 1: years after where everything has been rated. There's still stuff everywhere. Yeah,
2:19
Speaker 1: and there's very few people to raid. Yeah, it's fine, alright,
2:22
Speaker 1: go get some arrows. They're reusable. In fact, the shot
2:26
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. I'll tell him where you can pick them up.
2:29
Speaker 1: Norman read us an email. Where would you send him?
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Speaker 1: Go to? Uh, Thick Sporting Goods okay, ten ten for
2:38
Speaker 1: a dollar, not the mom and pop a army navy stores.
2:42
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I would go to one of those supports
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Speaker 1: small business exactly. Go to Bob's Bolt House. I love
2:49
Speaker 1: Bob's in the bolt district. Uh, it's so Chuck. You've
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Speaker 1: seen a crossbow before? Then? Yeah, I want to buy
2:55
Speaker 1: one after this? Yeah, I kind of like when to.
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Speaker 1: I don't know that either of us should be trusted
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Speaker 1: with one. Um. Obviously somebody took a bow, bow and arrow,
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Speaker 1: slapped it on top of a rifle and said, I
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Speaker 1: just made me a crossbow. That's what happened, and it's
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Speaker 1: probably a very recent origin. The end, good night, not true,
3:16
Speaker 1: Josh Liar. Archaeologists like Indiana Jones have found crossbows as
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Speaker 1: far back as year old Chinese graves. Isn't that crazy?
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Speaker 1: That is crazy? Um? And they think that it may
3:28
Speaker 1: be as much as four thousand years old. That that
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Speaker 1: technology in China two thousand BC. Perhaps um. They appeared
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Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean by the fourth century. A d Roman
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Speaker 1: military used them. Was written down in the in the
3:42
Speaker 1: text I love this guy's name of Flavius Vegeta, Vegetius
3:48
Speaker 1: vegetis renatus. His family invented broccoli. They called him flave
3:53
Speaker 1: though you know they did. Uh. They were all over
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Speaker 1: Europe during the Middle Ages. The crossbow was basically like
4:00
Speaker 1: you said, rifle meets bow, right, But this is long
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Speaker 1: before anybody thought of a rifle. That's true. But I
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Speaker 1: mean think about it, you like, that's what you think
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Speaker 1: it is. It's got like a trigger and there's a
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Speaker 1: stock and all that stuff. But it's it. It predates
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Speaker 1: the rifle by many thousands of years. Didn't Vinci draw
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Speaker 1: one of these up to Yeah, it's a it's a
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Speaker 1: page zero art chuck. Um. The there's a common among
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Speaker 1: the Mediterranean and the Chinese crossbow where the bow obviously
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Speaker 1: the stock which is also called the tiller, and um
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Speaker 1: the a groove in the stock or the tiller that
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Speaker 1: the arrow or bolt flew down. Um a trigger, but
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Speaker 1: the trigger mechanisms were different. Apparently, if you were in
4:51
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, you were trigger firing. Your trigger triggered the
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Speaker 1: firing mechanism by uh not twisted nuts, right, Okay. If
5:03
Speaker 1: you were in China, it used some bolts and levers
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Speaker 1: system of levers that fired the released the string and
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Speaker 1: fired the bolt. And these firing mechanisms are different enough
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Speaker 1: that archaeologists believe that they were independently conceived of in
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Speaker 1: China and in the Mediterranean. That's pretty cool. Yeah, uh
5:27
Speaker 1: most Another common device you'd see most often is a stirrup.
5:31
Speaker 1: And if you ever look at a crossbow, you'll notice
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Speaker 1: that it has a little steel stirrup on the front
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Speaker 1: of it where you can put I was trying to
5:42
Speaker 1: think of them, but it's a stirrup. So what you
5:44
Speaker 1: do is you put it on the ground and put
5:45
Speaker 1: your little foot in that stirrup so you can hold
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Speaker 1: it down real tight, and you and you pull it back,
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Speaker 1: pull the draw string back with both hands apparently equally
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Speaker 1: on both sides. It's important because you don't want it
5:56
Speaker 1: out to whack. You know, if it's off balance, the
5:59
Speaker 1: air is not gonna fly right now or true meat.
6:03
Speaker 1: And so you pull it back and you hook it
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Speaker 1: on a You know, they're all different, but you hook
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Speaker 1: it on a little peg device that will be released
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Speaker 1: by pulling the trigger. And that's the basic fundamentals. So
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Speaker 1: the crossbow doesn't just look cool, it has somebody. It
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Speaker 1: does look very cool and has it poses some actual
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Speaker 1: advantages over the bow. And the bow has been around
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Speaker 1: since before people even knew how to write, or knew
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Speaker 1: that there was such thing as writing, because there wasn't yet. Um.
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Speaker 1: And so what the crossbow does is it takes the
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Speaker 1: bow and all of its disadvantages and says, well, here,
6:39
Speaker 1: let me add this, and let me add that, let
6:41
Speaker 1: me change this a little bit, and all of a sudden,
6:43
Speaker 1: now any fat slob can shoot a bow and arrow. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: if you got a bow. If you if you're not,
6:49
Speaker 1: if you're traditional bowman or an archer, is bow and
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Speaker 1: even a word, I think it is now a right.
6:55
Speaker 1: If you're traditional archer, you are probably pretty strong, and
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Speaker 1: you might be sort of tall, and you are pretty quick,
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Speaker 1: because um, it's pretty quick process to draw up the bow,
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Speaker 1: aim it, and shoot it. You've seen Lord of the Rings,
7:10
Speaker 1: seeing Lord of the Rings. But the longer it takes
7:12
Speaker 1: you to aim, the more tired you're gonna your little
7:15
Speaker 1: arms are gonna be the less accurate you're gonna be
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Speaker 1: with a with a crossbow. You know, you can cock
7:20
Speaker 1: that thing and you're done, right, It just sits there
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Speaker 1: cocked indefinitely until you pull the trigger. Yeah. I wouldn't
7:26
Speaker 1: walk around like that unless you're like a hunter maybe
7:29
Speaker 1: or some jerk. Yeah, but don't do it in your backyard. Um.
7:33
Speaker 1: So it takes that that need for endurance, yeah, in
7:38
Speaker 1: in you know, holding it waiting for somebody to come
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Speaker 1: around the bend. And yes, and like you said, it
7:44
Speaker 1: also introduced a whole new, uh subpar breed of warrior
7:50
Speaker 1: because if you are a great archer, that means, like
7:53
Speaker 1: I said, you're probably strong, probably a little bit taller
7:55
Speaker 1: for the age because people are shorter. Back then, long
7:58
Speaker 1: bow was stronger, shot, straighter, and further. So you want
8:00
Speaker 1: to use a long bow. But you know, if you
8:03
Speaker 1: got a crossbow, if you can pull that thing back,
8:06
Speaker 1: that's all you need to do. But sometimes you didn't
8:09
Speaker 1: need need to pull that thing back. Well, you can
8:11
Speaker 1: pull that thing back generally because you're using a stirrup, right,
8:14
Speaker 1: which means you're using your foot and if you have
8:17
Speaker 1: a little hook attached to your belt, then you're you're
8:20
Speaker 1: doing a squat and that's how you're pulling, That's how
8:23
Speaker 1: you're cocking the crossbow. Right. Well, I imagine it's probably
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Speaker 1: like a dwarf or maybe an elf, like you know,
8:33
Speaker 1: elves are kind of undeveloped. Um, but you're you're standing
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Speaker 1: up basically to cock the bow the crossbow, and um,
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Speaker 1: you're using your buttocks and your thigh muscles, which are
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Speaker 1: the strongest muscles in your body. So you could just
8:49
Speaker 1: be like a total upper body woods but ripped from
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Speaker 1: the waist down. You're a cross bowman or a cross archer.
8:56
Speaker 1: That's true. But what I was saying was was the
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Speaker 1: krannikin sometimes you didn't have to pull it back at all,
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Speaker 1: because in fourteenth century Europe they began making this thing,
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Speaker 1: this device called a crann Akin that you could put
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Speaker 1: on your crossbow, had little toothed wheel and a crank
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Speaker 1: and it would basically pull the string back for you.
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Speaker 1: You're just cranking it like you're opening, um, your grandmother's
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Speaker 1: windows at her house, you know, like the little crank thing.
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Speaker 1: But as you're doing that, it's cocking the bow. But
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Speaker 1: it's cocking a bow that you couldn't possibly cock yourself,
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Speaker 1: which means that you're about to shoot a bolt that
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Speaker 1: can go right through a tree or pretty significantly deep
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Speaker 1: into a tree, or better yet, into a war horse
9:39
Speaker 1: or the human being. That's right. The problem is it
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Speaker 1: takes forever to crank the crann akin, and in some
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Speaker 1: cases some models, you had to crank the krann akin,
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Speaker 1: get it cocked, and then remove the crann akin, put
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Speaker 1: the bolt in and then shoot. So it was very powerful,
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Speaker 1: but it was very slow, which is one disadvantage of
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Speaker 1: a crossbow. I wouldn't have wanted went back in the day, No,
10:01
Speaker 1: But if you were in China and you wanted to
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Speaker 1: get some shots off pretty quick, they had a crossbow
10:07
Speaker 1: for you. They had an automatic crossbows. If that shot
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Speaker 1: several bolts a second, it had a magazine that would
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Speaker 1: just feed bolts into the into the crossbow, which would
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Speaker 1: um cock through level levers. The moment it was cocked,
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Speaker 1: it would shoot the bolt, and then another bolt would
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Speaker 1: come down, and the moment it was cocked another bolt,
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Speaker 1: it would shoot it, and so on, and so if
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Speaker 1: you were going really fast you could just rain bolts
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Speaker 1: down on somebody. The problem is, um it was fast,
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Speaker 1: but it wasn't very accurate, and it wasn't very deadly,
10:38
Speaker 1: but it probably scared the tar out of people who
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Speaker 1: saw it. And the bolt didn't travel that fast. It
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Speaker 1: was fast to shoot, but not fast in flight. But
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Speaker 1: I've tried to find a picture of that thing because
10:47
Speaker 1: I could not fathom it in my brain, and I
10:49
Speaker 1: couldn't find any obviously because it was a long time
10:51
Speaker 1: ago before it was pre pictures. Right. Uh, let's talk
10:56
Speaker 1: about physics, Josh, because this is my favorite thing to do. Well,
10:59
Speaker 1: this is a Trace E. Wilson article, So of course
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Speaker 1: there's going to be a section on the physics of crossbows.
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Speaker 1: There is. Um, So, a bow is basically a spring?
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Speaker 1: Did you know that I used to shoot? Did you
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Speaker 1: really you knew that a bow is basically a spring? Well? Sure,
11:14
Speaker 1: I read that like four times. Really, yeah, I think
11:17
Speaker 1: that's very neat. So like to take a bed spring,
11:20
Speaker 1: all right? And I heard you. I heard that you
11:22
Speaker 1: used to shoot. I want to know about it, but
11:24
Speaker 1: I'm just like knee deep in the physics. Now, um,
11:27
Speaker 1: you take a spring, you stretch it out. What you've
11:30
Speaker 1: just done is um generate? Well you haven't generated it,
11:34
Speaker 1: but you've just somehow amassed elastic energy, potential energy, potential
11:39
Speaker 1: energy through the elasticity of the spring. Okay, as you're
11:43
Speaker 1: holding it, all of that energy is potential. It's like,
11:46
Speaker 1: just let me go and I'll do some crazy stuff.
11:49
Speaker 1: So much potential. The moment you're like, oh, the potential
11:52
Speaker 1: energy becomes kinnectic energy. I believe we talked a lot
11:54
Speaker 1: about this roller coasters. Um. The same thing with the bow.
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Speaker 1: When you pull a string, it's connected to either end
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Speaker 1: of the bow. You're pulling the bow back, you're changing
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Speaker 1: its shape. It's slick a spring being stretched out, but
12:06
Speaker 1: in this case, the bow is just being brought together
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Speaker 1: the limbs um and then when you let go, the
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Speaker 1: bow springs back to its original shape, drawing Suddenly the
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Speaker 1: string highly taught. You have an arrow attached to that string,
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Speaker 1: and it sends that arrow shooting forward at incredible speeds.
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Speaker 1: The physics of a bow also apply to the physics
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Speaker 1: of a crossbow. Yeah, and if you never thought about it,
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Speaker 1: it's it is interesting because it's not a little toy
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Speaker 1: string that's elastic string stays the same length. You know, right,
12:43
Speaker 1: you're pulling the pulling the limbs together, and then when
12:46
Speaker 1: you let go, the limbs go away from you very suddenly.
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Speaker 1: The amount of energy of boken hole, Josh, you can
12:53
Speaker 1: figure that out. Actually, it's draw weight is the amount
12:55
Speaker 1: of force required to draw it back and straw length.
12:58
Speaker 1: It's a distance between the bowstrings position at rest and
13:01
Speaker 1: when drawn. And the total amount of energy that the
13:05
Speaker 1: bow can hold is approximately equal to the draw wait
13:10
Speaker 1: times draw length divided by two. Yeah. And then usually
13:14
Speaker 1: that's that's expressed in um jewels, footpounds or jewels. Yeah,
13:19
Speaker 1: I was getting around. No, that's the bow's energy. Um.
13:22
Speaker 1: You can also impress a cross bowman by talking about
13:26
Speaker 1: the errors velocity, which is measured in feet or meters
13:29
Speaker 1: per second. That's right. And a lot of things can
13:32
Speaker 1: affect this. Obviously, if you have a long bow, it's
13:37
Speaker 1: gonna be more powerful than a short boat because it
13:39
Speaker 1: just makes sense. So the size affects it, the shape
13:42
Speaker 1: affects it. A recurve bow, which is one of the
13:44
Speaker 1: ones I had grown up, is uh, it doesn't just
13:47
Speaker 1: come back into you. It comes back into you then
13:50
Speaker 1: flares back out away from the other direction. Yeah. Um.
13:54
Speaker 1: And at the top end bottom right. And what this
13:56
Speaker 1: does is it shortens the bracing height, which is the
13:58
Speaker 1: distance between this ring and the bow when it's at rest,
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Speaker 1: which means that since that's shorter, when you pull the
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Speaker 1: string back and release it, it has a longer distance
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Speaker 1: to travel before it comes to a stop, which means
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Speaker 1: it gives that arrow or bolt a little extra push. Right.
14:17
Speaker 1: And also the recurved bow uh makes the bow even
14:22
Speaker 1: string springing ear adds a little spring to it. Step
14:26
Speaker 1: composition is another thing, Josh. Density intensil strength determine how
14:32
Speaker 1: much energy it holds. And uh, obviously back in the
14:36
Speaker 1: day they made him from things like you y e
14:39
Speaker 1: w very strong and very elastic. Not you, not you,
14:42
Speaker 1: but you. Modern bows a lot a lot of times
14:45
Speaker 1: are composite bows, which means, when they need it to
14:48
Speaker 1: be rigid, they'll make it out of one material. When
14:49
Speaker 1: they need it to be flexible, they'll make it out
14:51
Speaker 1: of something else. And then they put it all together
14:54
Speaker 1: to make a killing machine, exactly to make a zombie
14:57
Speaker 1: killing machine. Uh. And then there are compound bow those
15:00
Speaker 1: which I had one of those two. A compound boat
15:04
Speaker 1: is uses pulleys, little wheels and pulleys to make it
15:09
Speaker 1: easier to pull back and hold once you get it there.
15:12
Speaker 1: And that's called the let off once it reaches a
15:15
Speaker 1: certain point. Do you ever shot a compoundbo I have?
15:18
Speaker 1: And that that sensation of pulling and then all of
15:20
Speaker 1: a sudden, there's no resistance like this. Basically this very
15:24
Speaker 1: cool was cocked. It's a very cool feeling, like I
15:26
Speaker 1: could hold this all day. Not all day, but it
15:29
Speaker 1: is very cool. And I had one of those, and
15:30
Speaker 1: I had a regular little record alright. Now, my dad
15:33
Speaker 1: he gets into phases. He got into a bow and arrow,
15:37
Speaker 1: He got into an archery phase and built a thing
15:38
Speaker 1: on on our property. And you know, as my dad does,
15:42
Speaker 1: he went out and bought like a seven hundred dollar
15:44
Speaker 1: compound boat. Yeah yeah, but he bought me like a
15:47
Speaker 1: little miniature versions of everything he got. And he was
15:51
Speaker 1: a principal at my school, like I've mentioned, so he
15:53
Speaker 1: had like, all of a sudden, there was an archery
15:54
Speaker 1: program at school, and uh it was fun. Man, I
15:57
Speaker 1: shot a lot of arrows growing up. Did you hunt anything? No,
16:01
Speaker 1: not a hunter targets. Did you have a crossbow? Uh no,
16:06
Speaker 1: never even shot a crossbow. But I had a little
16:08
Speaker 1: compound and a little recurve. That's very cool. But after
16:12
Speaker 1: this article, I'm dying to shoot a crossbow. Yeah, I
16:15
Speaker 1: don't know anybody who has one. I bet, I bet
16:18
Speaker 1: bet you do. Is there like a whole like a
16:21
Speaker 1: group of people that had crossbowsy, and I'm not familiar.
16:25
Speaker 1: I bet Matt Frederick has a crossbow. Man, do you
16:28
Speaker 1: have a crossbow? No? He did, never a crossbow. Um,
16:32
Speaker 1: he has a laser gun though, the functioning laser gun.
16:36
Speaker 1: That will just disintegrate to you. Um, let's talk safety, Chuck.
16:40
Speaker 1: In this article, Tracy Um turns into Tommy Lee Jones
16:44
Speaker 1: and No Country for Old Man when she says do
16:48
Speaker 1: not point when at anything you do not plan to shoot. Yeah.
16:51
Speaker 1: I don't like that rule. I think it should be that.
16:54
Speaker 1: And you don't point it at anyone period. Okay. I
16:58
Speaker 1: was gonna say, like it as an account for just
17:00
Speaker 1: goofing around. Yeah, that's that's the what they say with
17:05
Speaker 1: every gun is don't point it at someone unless you
17:07
Speaker 1: plan to shoot them. But my rule of thumbs, don't
17:09
Speaker 1: point it at anyone. Because a crossbow. I looked it
17:12
Speaker 1: up to see if it was a good home security feature.
17:16
Speaker 1: It's not your insurance come to be, Like, wait, what
17:20
Speaker 1: you wanted us to reduce it because you have a crossbow.
17:22
Speaker 1: They make a little pistol ones too, with a little
17:24
Speaker 1: short had a pistol one, No, he had a bow caster.
17:29
Speaker 1: It's like a pistol. Call, it's like a pistol crossbow, right,
17:32
Speaker 1: and then it shoots energy. Okay, but it's the shape
17:36
Speaker 1: of a crossbow. That's a pistol. I thought it didn't
17:39
Speaker 1: have a stock. I thought it was a pistol. Was it.
17:42
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just so big it looked like a pistol
17:44
Speaker 1: on him. We'll hear about this one for sure. Man.
17:47
Speaker 1: Uh safety, Josh, you want to place the stirrup at
17:50
Speaker 1: the ground. I don't want to point it at you
17:52
Speaker 1: at all, or have a friend hold the stirrup while
17:54
Speaker 1: you cock. It's terrible. No, no, no, no, I'm saying,
17:58
Speaker 1: do not do that. You do not do that. You
18:00
Speaker 1: want to point it to the ground. Put the stirrup
18:02
Speaker 1: on the ground. Put your foot in the stirrup. You
18:04
Speaker 1: want to brace it very firmly. Sure your foots all
18:07
Speaker 1: the way in there. Because this is a lot of energy,
18:10
Speaker 1: potential energy you're building up here. Um. Like I said
18:13
Speaker 1: you earlier, you want to grab it, pull it equally
18:15
Speaker 1: on both sides, lock it into place, and the modern
18:18
Speaker 1: crossbow will automatically have a little safety that that happens there,
18:23
Speaker 1: and there may be an additional safety that you can
18:24
Speaker 1: set after that, which is good. You um also want
18:30
Speaker 1: to stand out of the way of the front of
18:33
Speaker 1: the bow. And I'm not just saying in the path
18:35
Speaker 1: of the arrow, but that bow. Remember it's stretched towards
18:39
Speaker 1: you when this when the string is cocked or when
18:42
Speaker 1: the string is pulled back, and when you release it,
18:44
Speaker 1: the bow flies forward and outward, and if your hands there,
18:49
Speaker 1: it's going to smack it and probably break every bone
18:52
Speaker 1: in it. And also if you're hunting or you're shooting
18:56
Speaker 1: a target from behind a tree, um, you don't want
19:00
Speaker 1: the uh the crossbows bow to smack into the tree
19:04
Speaker 1: or else is probably going to break the bow. That's right,
19:06
Speaker 1: it's pricey. And never dry fire. Yeah I didn't. I
19:10
Speaker 1: knew that just from common sense. Most types of things
19:14
Speaker 1: that you shoot you shouldn't dry fire. But that means
19:16
Speaker 1: shooting it without a bolt. But it's made to shoot
19:19
Speaker 1: a bolt. It's configured to shoot the weight of a bolt.
19:22
Speaker 1: So when you shoot it dry that waits not there,
19:25
Speaker 1: so you could potentially break your bolt. And Tracy points
19:28
Speaker 1: out that dry firing voids nearly all manufacturers warranties, so
19:34
Speaker 1: don't try fire. And again, never go for the extended warranty.
19:39
Speaker 1: And if you haven't listened to the Extended Warranty podcast yet,
19:42
Speaker 1: should go back and listen to. It's pretty good, really, Yeah, Man,
19:45
Speaker 1: I didn't know they were good back then. Yeah, they're good,
19:47
Speaker 1: all right. Yeah, because we just took this completely boring
19:51
Speaker 1: topic and really went to town on it. It was
19:53
Speaker 1: a good one, Chuck. The last piece of safety advice
19:56
Speaker 1: is get a bolt that has rated for your crossbow. Well, yeah,
20:01
Speaker 1: because you don't want to. You can't just put any
20:03
Speaker 1: size and weight in there. It's figured very specifically exactly.
20:06
Speaker 1: You can't just say, man, look at that big bolt,
20:07
Speaker 1: let me put that thing in here. Yeah, so when
20:09
Speaker 1: the zombie apocalypse comes, you better know what your crossbow
20:13
Speaker 1: is rated for. Um, and don't drive on the auto
20:17
Speaker 1: bonn in tires that are rated for a lower speed
20:20
Speaker 1: than what your car can drive. Things you should know. Uh,
20:24
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about the Auto bon
20:26
Speaker 1: I just change the name of our show, by the
20:27
Speaker 1: way you did. If if you want, do you want
20:30
Speaker 1: to tell them the real stuff? You should know Okay,
20:33
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about the Autobahn, extended warranties,
20:36
Speaker 1: and crossbows, you can type any one of those three
20:39
Speaker 1: or all three together and see what comes up in
20:41
Speaker 1: the handy search bar at how stuff Works dot com
20:44
Speaker 1: and uh that means now, friends, it's time for listener mail. Josh.
20:50
Speaker 1: This is another soldier shout out work suckers for those
20:54
Speaker 1: and the one Norman Torsia to day we mentioned. I
20:57
Speaker 1: forgot to mention that's the dude that I sent the
20:58
Speaker 1: jump drive to. Okay, with every single one of our
21:01
Speaker 1: podcast on it. Man, that must have been a huge jump.
21:04
Speaker 1: It was about as big as my pinky. And you
21:06
Speaker 1: know I did it because he asked. You are going
21:10
Speaker 1: to be doing that a lot more often now. I
21:12
Speaker 1: have a feeling that you have to prove that you're
21:14
Speaker 1: saving lives and Afghanistan in order to get that. So
21:18
Speaker 1: this is from another dude. This is from Sergeant Gabriel Everhard.
21:23
Speaker 1: Greetings from Iraq. I'm writing you today from the Center
21:25
Speaker 1: of Civilization a k a. The Fertile Crescent, Iraq. I'm
21:30
Speaker 1: a combat engineer in the U. S. Army. On my
21:32
Speaker 1: second combat tour, I've had the opportunity to have wireless
21:35
Speaker 1: internet and have been downloading many of your podcasts and
21:38
Speaker 1: I listened each evening during the day while on patrol
21:41
Speaker 1: and m R A P Mine resistant Armored Patrol em RAP.
21:46
Speaker 1: I've heard that these are like hurt locker dudes I
21:49
Speaker 1: make I'm not positive. I relayed the plot. I relayed
21:53
Speaker 1: the podcast I listened to the night before over the
21:55
Speaker 1: headset to the guys. It is great for breaking up
21:58
Speaker 1: monotony of looking for ied ease. Oh yeah, I guess
22:01
Speaker 1: they are hurt look at guys, huh and talking about
22:04
Speaker 1: the usual army related stories. My soldiers have learned about
22:08
Speaker 1: many interesting things like human cannonballers, schizophrenia, parkour, and con artists.
22:13
Speaker 1: They especially like the play by play on shrinking human heads.
22:15
Speaker 1: I bet they did. Uh. In summary on behalf of
22:19
Speaker 1: myself and my soldiers just wanted to extend our thanks
22:22
Speaker 1: to both you guys. Sitting in a convoy of vehicles
22:25
Speaker 1: with the same dudes for up to twelve hours a day,
22:27
Speaker 1: it's kind of like taking a year long road trip,
22:29
Speaker 1: but on the same roads. Well, it's sort of like
22:32
Speaker 1: a Twilight Zone episode. And guys, in your own way,
22:35
Speaker 1: you're both doing great things for your country. I don't
22:38
Speaker 1: know about Matt, but I'll take care. So I told
22:42
Speaker 1: Gabriel everhart Is Sarge that we would give those guys
22:45
Speaker 1: a shout out then the Mason Province of Iraq. So dudes,
22:49
Speaker 1: if you're listening, we love you. Be safe and come
22:52
Speaker 1: home in one piece, seriously, and uh, thanks for everything
22:55
Speaker 1: you do. Yeah for slubs like us who just run
22:58
Speaker 1: off at the mouth and we're sorry. Out the park
23:00
Speaker 1: Core podcast. And if you have a special request, we
23:04
Speaker 1: will strongly consider it. He did. Actually I didn't leave
23:08
Speaker 1: that part in, but it was about Mesopotamia. I think
23:10
Speaker 1: we did that one. It was Mesotamia the Cradle of civilization.
23:14
Speaker 1: Well there you go, Yeah and done. If you have
23:17
Speaker 1: another one that we haven't done before, send it in
23:19
Speaker 1: email chuck back and we'll see what we can do. Uh.
23:22
Speaker 1: And if you have a request special request, UM, let
23:26
Speaker 1: us know why we should entertain it, what it is,
23:30
Speaker 1: and we'll see what we can do. And there's three
23:32
Speaker 1: ways you can contact us, aside from saying hi through
23:35
Speaker 1: our system of campbell, soup cans and string. UM, you
23:39
Speaker 1: can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. UM,
23:43
Speaker 1: you can visit us on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash
23:47
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know, and you can send us an email.
23:49
Speaker 1: It's Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be
23:58
Speaker 1: sure to check out our new YEO podcast, Stuff from
24:01
Speaker 1: the Future. Join Housteffwork staff as we explore the most
24:04
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by
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