Most of our daily drivers are Mercedes. And every little part has some trick to disassemble it. Once you know the trick, it is easy. But you can fool with the part for hours, and never figure the trick out. YouTube is a real salvation in those cases, but it is so exasperating to have to watch someone give a ten minute monologue before showing the way the stupid thing comes apart.
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My understanding is that another big difference between some variants of this idea is how sturdy the spear is. In some the spear is quite sturdy, and in others, like this one it is quite flexible. The flexible ones can shoot faster partly because some of the energy from the strongest part of the throwing arc is stored into bending the spear and then released as it springs back in the later parts of the swing when less energy can be imparted to the spear by the thrower.
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To the Australian Aborigines it is known as a woomera
Fun space fact: this is why the missile testing site in South Australia is at Woomera
ETA: I see there are obviously a few other Aussies here, as everything I said had already been said by others
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Un-fun Australian fact: as per usual, the local indigenous people were not asked and did not give permission for their land to be turned into a rocket range and nuclear testing site.
Woomera’s worth checking out; they’ve got half a dozen genuine space rockets sitting rusting in the local park.
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This might give a better idea of how it all works - they even let a local have a go!
I imagine they’re taking into account the greater mass of a spear over a typical arrow.
But yes, qualifiers apply.
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That’s because his videos are great. He works hard for them, and while not necessarily representing any one “primitive” culture’s technology, he figures it out as he goes. Some of his projects take months to complete, and he’s got quite good with his video style, ie. no talk, no music, just decent video shooting and editing.
Also, for some reason, my cat fucking loves them.
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Any time one of his videos are posted to reddit, there are a number of women and men politely (or not so politely) slathering over him. I mean, I’m a mostly straight man, and I get some tingles.
Very true. In the spearthrower, the missile is propelled from the end, just as an arrow is driven by the nock. So in addition to the performance characteristics of weight, weight distribution and length that thrown spears and arrows normally share, you add spine, which is not (normally) a big deal for thrown spears.
When I have used spearthrowers, the range has been short and the spears were stiff spined. However, I’ve seen people use 5’+ spears that were as whippy as arrows, that had a sort of fluflu fletching on the end, and you could really easily see the spring action happening with those.
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MMmmm, nice, now I have two Primitive Technology videos saved up for when I am having one of those days where I really need something to relax and chill out. They’re so perfect for that. Him calmly working, things getting done, built, constructed, tested. Rain pattering on leaves or a fired brick roof. Fire burning. Birds in the forest. I find it so very very relaxing, in part since he doesn’t talk!
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The higher mass projectile is helpful because humans are limited in terms of how much force they can put behind something; and in how fast they can move their limbs(at least until an olympics-ready breed of tick-men is perfected). Throwing a spear unaided your maximum velocity is going to be pretty tepid no matter how strong you are, so the best option for maximum kinetic energy is a fairly massive projectile. With the aid of a spear thrower, you can get higher velocities, since your arm is effectively longer; with a bow you are no longer limited by how fast muscle can contract; but by how fast your elastic material can release stored energy, which allows much higher velocities; but only if you make the projectile less massive, since you still have limited force to work with.
With something like a crossbow, where various mechanical-advantage draw systems are an option, and you can store the archer’s work across a period of time(limited both by the technology and by the fact that people are probably trying to kill him while he reloads, so it had better not take too long), you again start to run up against velocity limits, and making bolts substantially more massive than arrows becomes a good strategy.
When it comes to killing animals and/or the away tribe, projectile mass may have other considerations(trying to run with a big spear stuck in you is going to be less successful than running with a relatively lightweight arrow stuck in you, so for a hunter with some endurance and tracking skills; but tepid chances at an immediate kill, that is probably a bonus; strategies like those roman javalins designed to force the opponent to abandon their shield are also an option); but in no small part the mass of the projectile reflects the desire to put a lethal amount of kinetic energy behind it and the limitations of the velocities you can achieve.
Human muscle is out of the equation; but those same basic constraints remain in place today; with the various tradeoffs between comparatively slow, massive, bullets(especially common with legacy designs that were limited by slow burning powders or inability to endure high chamber pressures) or designs that go for as much muzzle velocity as they can, typically with a less massive projectile. And, as always, people are dissatisfied with the limits(team chemistry can only get propellant to expand so fast, and the volume of the barrel behind the projectile increases as it moves down the barrel, so anyone who wants still-higher velocities is now poking at electromagnetic options; or making do with denser materials to maximize mass at velocities that can be achieved chemically.
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You have a good point there. I should probably have specified ‘comparatively recently, alarmingly successfully; but unsuccessfully enough that the effects are still being felt by the winners and the losers’.
As you say, pretty much everyone either has some skeletons in the closet or is a skeleton in somebody else’s closet; but some unpleasant history is too distant to matter; or was enough of a stalemate that it doesn’t have contemporary impact; or was simply thorough enough that the losers are of purely archaeological significance.
Other unpleasant history is still pretty fresh; and left a fair few survivors from the losing side, some of them still feeling the effects fairly directly.
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Did I just get mansplained? 
I hope not. If so, I apologize; as it was not my intention. I do love a good meandering consideration of something; but try to avoid condescension; and definitely try to avoid talking when I could learn much more by listening.
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Mine’s a £500 Lexus. Imma drive it til it goes ‘bang’ then buy another one the same. The 1uz doesn’t have all the oomph of its German rivals, but damn if it isn’t a fine engine. I love my little six.
No, no, I was just joking. It’s good to have the more complete explanation to flush out my lazy response.
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My wife was in a very serious accident a few years ago, and credits the Mercedes with salvation. She will not drive anything else.
It can be a matter of perspective, how far back one still feels the effects. And there tend to be echos back and forth.
I had a few DiResta videos queued up and then he went and was speaking in one. The nerve.
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How absolutely crude! Nice videos, btw, saw one about stainless steel hinges… impressive what can be done with tools and skill and patience!
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