Bad Science at the Ren Faire

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The thing about mythbusters that bothers me is the way they attempt, for a short period of time, to do something. If they cannot, they declare it impossible. The word for something that cannot be done easily and in a short period of time is "difficult", not impossible. I'd lay money one arrow can be split by another by an extremely skilled archer (although I'd be very surprised if they didn't need quite a few shots at it).

The thing about Mythbusters is, when they can't replicate the myth as it was handed to them, they try to force a replication of the outcome. In the case of the splitting-an-arrow myth, for instance, they rigged up a mechanical arrow-firing contraption that launched arrows with hair-splitting accuracy. They placed this less than an inch behind a wooden arrow stuck in a target and aligned it so that the fired-arrow's flight path would go exactly down the length of the target-arrow's shaft.

The result? The fired-arrow invariable followed the grain of the wood in the target-arrow's shaft. At the point where the wood grain stopped running parallel to the shaft, the fired-arrow always got forced outward. This resulted in a partly-split target-arrow. It was impossible to split the target-arrow from nock-to-tip because wooden arrow shafts are never made with a grain that runs completely parallel to the shaft. (The mythbusters even tried putting slotted metal tubes around the target-arrow to force the fired-arrow to keep going straight; the tendency for the fired-arrow to follow the grain in the target-arrow was so strong that the fired-arrow ripped its way out of the metal tube!)

If that doesn't thoroughly bust the myth, I don't know what does.

[Gillianren]

well, I'm back--the Kirlian photography booth charges $25. a bit much for harmless, as far as I'm concerned, but I only go past it on my way somewhere else.

and once again, I've cleared up someone else's ignorance of science. for one, see my essay about Perseid viewing in the "cool sighting" thread. for another, found out that my neighbor thought distance from the sun was the deciding factor in summer's heat, and explained that.

[01101001]

It was impossible to split the target-arrow from nock-to-tip because wooden arrow shafts are never made with a grain that runs completely parallel to the shaft. [...]If that doesn't thoroughly bust the myth, I don't know what does.

That grain bothered me. I do a lot of woodworking, but I don't know much about arrows, but is it possible that the arrows of the Robin-Hood era were not lathed cylinders from larger blocks of wood, but simply segments of straight branches, so that the grain all ran parallel to the surface? If I try to split a modern dowel, lathed from a larger block of wood, the break will natually follow the grain and emerge to the surface on the side. If I split a branch, or a log, it's not so hard to do it cleanly from end to end.

I didn't hear the details that the myth claimed, if it applied to modern arrows (but wasn't there a bit in the episode where a seller of arrows said it still happens?) or only to those of olden days.

[Enzp]

Indian Summer?

That is Native American Summer To You

Otherwise called NASTY.

Nyah Nyah.

[EvilBob]

...for another, found out that my neighbor thought distance from the sun was the deciding factor in summer's heat, and explained that.

Funny, I remember disabusing my wife of this one, too. I also recently had to explain the whole Copernican system to her when she asked why the moon has phases. #-o

[Grey]

Indian Summer?

That is Native American Summer To You

We like to joke that we get "Indian Winter" (even if the term isn't politically correct). Since you're from Michigan, too, I assume you've experienced this. In February or March it warms up, it seems like spring is coming, and lulls you into a false sense of security. Then the April blizzards hit.

[mid]

Umm, isn't "Indian Summer" derived from it being hot around that time of the year on the actual Indian Subcontinent as experienced by the Raj? As in, not 'politically incorrect' to use the term Indian for it at all?

[Gillianren]

nope. it'd be nice, but the term "Indian" (I'd cite a reference if I could remember which of my books it's in) was used a couple hundred years ago to mean "false." according to whatever-book-it-was, even "Indian corn" fell into that category--corn, of course, merely meaning "grain" in England. "Indian corn" was "false grain," because it was weird, and they didn't recognize it. (I think this is from the Straight Dope, but it might be Imponderables.)

[Enzp]

And Indian SUmmer refers to a warm up after the first fall frost. The summer comes to a close and the temperature declines, but in early autumn we get a warm spell with almost summer-like temperatures. That is called an Indian SUmmer.