XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: mjackson@alumni.caltech.edu   
      
   On 10/15/2025 5:04 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:   
   > Paul S Person   wrote:   
   >> I appear to be projecting much more modern concepts of artillery onto   
   >> the distant past.   
   >>   
   >> Ancient geometry did include conic sections, although whether they   
   >> were related to the path of missiles used in indirect fire [1] I do   
   >> not know.=20   
   >   
   > I don't know, but Galileo does talk about how the projectile follows a   
   > parabola and why.  He does mention indrect fire although I don't think   
   > it is very useful unless you have good spotting, which would have been   
   > a problem at the time.   
   >   
   > But time of arrival is more difficult since the projectile velocity   
   > isn't constant at every point along that parabola.  Vectors and the   
   > calculus make these simple problems but they would be difficult to   
   > solve without them.   
      
   Again, why would you need calculus?  The time to arrival depends on the   
   distance to target and the horizontal component of the muzzle velocity,   
   both of which are constant.  Only the vertical component of the shell's   
   velocity varies, and that doesn't enter into things.   
      
   (For negligible air resistance, of course, and - to be precise - firing   
   at a target at the same height as the cannon.  Firing uphill the shell   
   will land a bit earlier, downhill a bit later.)   
      
   --   
   Mark Jackson - https://mark-jackson.online/   
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