Is there any technological limit of a medieval bow draw weight, assuming the archer is strong enough to use any bow?
>>61973145What the fuck is wrong with that lorica segmentata
>>61973145He looks like Macron
>>61973148Doesn't fit such a huge guy
>>61973164Gee, you don't sayIt's almost like they're supposed to be custom made to fit the individual, or something
>>61973148He has it on backwards
>>61973145Yes, but it's difficult to say exactly what it is. It should be theoretically possible to build a say, six foot bow with a thirty some odd inch draw and a draw weight of over 1000 pounds, but it's never been done. 1000lb+ draw bows of horn, wood, and metal have all been made for use with crossbows, but they had shorter draw lengths, and shorter "spans" so they really aren't the same thing we're talking about. I believe there were examples of full length bows with full length draws with draw weights of up to 300 pounds, for use on special, extremely "wide" crossbows. Still, I doubt 1000 pounds at over 30 inches of draw is the theoretical maximum. But whether that maximum is 1200 or 12000, I cant tell you without extensive testing I'll likely never be in a position to do.
>>61973261Think millions of tons, not thousands of pounds. The problem isn't the bow, it's the projectile.
>>61973145you hit the human/practical limitations pretty quickly so more draw weight isnt the answer to every problem
>>61973145YesThe shaft or the bowstring or the projectile can breakThe limitation is in the durability of these materials to withstand the full draw weight
Yes. Wood strength. It was usually yew.
>>61973261>draw weight of over 1000 pounds, but it's never been doneSort of.One tribe in Africa made bigger for hunting elephants. But they drew the bow using their whole body and fired what are best described as small spears.
>>61973145>Is there any technological limit of a medieval bow draw weightYes, but it's not a hard limit, it's a question of diminishing returns. You can make a 1000lb or whatever other super high draw weight. But as the bow gets heavier its performance drops because of inertia, more and more of its power is wasted by accelerating the bow itself and that steals energy away that could otherwise go into the arrow. A heavy bow doesn't perform well.
>>61973145Orsovan Balliestae could hit 5k+ draw, so... quite a lot I'd say.
there is a limit to thickness set by leverage and how far the materials can stretch, but you can make the bow wider or have several layers either connected with string like several bows in conjunction or like a leaf spring kinda thing where layers can slide against eachother.your fantasy hypothetical is actually a real problem to take into consideration, just with crossbows instead of bows. note how all the large, spring powered artillery used torsion springs instead.there is this japanese depiction of what might be a layered bow on a siege crossbow, but who knows.i think the depiction is atleast slightly inaccurate because the string is attached in such a way that it makes no use of the recurve ends
>>61973864>the string is attached in such a way that it makes no use of the recurve endsMore likely a stylistic depiction of nocks than a functional recurve
>>61973145There is no technological limit. After all, you can just make a flat bow and extend the width indefinitely for an infinite draw weight. The bottleneck would then be the strength of the string, but there's nothing stopping you from increasing the size of the string either.
>>61973161>macronkeked, it's mariusz pudzianowski, polish strongman, he won europe's strongest man title six times
>>61973145>>61973261The Chinese Han crossbows literally were bows mounted on a stock with full power stroke, and the heaviest were around 200-300lbs.
>>61973289>>61973261At a certain point, you reach physical constraints. A 1000lb bow would have to be massive to support the forces at play. You wouldn't be able to get your hands around it. We would need bigger people. Or stronger materials for the bow.
Assuming a wood and string with infinite draw capacity and an archer with infinite muscle capacity the bottleneck in the system would be cooling such musculature as muscles flexing to a million pounds of tension or so would create an extreme amount of heat. That also assumes consuming the needed calories to operate such muscles.
>>61973161It IS macron
>>61973145Not really.
>>61973289>Technological limit of a medieval bow assuming the archer is strong enough>Modern suspension bridgeLets see you build a medieval suspension bridge that launches arrows when pulled back on a contact point created by a fucking man you titanic gorilla nigger.
>>61973343What the fuck do you mean "sort of". Those bows did not have anything close to 1000 pound draws, nor 500 pound draws, nor 200 pound draws I'd wager. I'd be surprised if you can show me an actual replica of one of their bows following a historical example that had a draw weight of even 100 pounds. >>61974151The human is supernaturally strong, not supernaturally heavy, or supernaturally large.Also, limitations of scale are definitionally baked in to the requirement that it has to be made by a medieval society, you fucking retard.
