A Win is a Win: How Weighted Point Values Don’t Affect Match Outcomes
Good fighters find a way to get it done. It looks like hitting them more than they hit you is more important than what the point values of the targets are.
Dynamic vs Static: A Generic ‘+Balance’ Stat Doesn’t Exist
Balance is generally regarded as a very important part of any martial art. And for good reason. If you don’t have your balance stabilized you […]
Do Fullers Make Feders Take a Set?
In a completely non-intuitive trick of physics, adding a fuller to a feder actually makes the sword more likely to take a permanent set. Let’s have a look!
First Blood, First Win? How Important Is the First Exchange
How important is the first exchange? Turns out, it tells you quite a bit.
Describing Motions
In the year 2000 Antoinette Gentile published a framework of understanding and classifying motions based on four controlling dimensions. This framework, which has come to be called the Gentile Taxonomy, can help to classify different actions and identify the prime challenges in accomplishing them.
Degrees of Freedom
A degree of freedom is the number of directions in which something is free to move. You may be thinking of the three directions, but in this case you would be thinking wrong. The maximum number of degrees of freedom of a rigid body is six.
Brittle vs Ductile and Swords in Freezers
Things get more brittle when they get cold. But why?
2019 – Year In Review
And so we come to the end of year number two for Sword STEM.
Totally Scientific Reasons You Need a New Sword
When I published “Do Swords Really Wear Out?” I was accused of robbing people of the ability to justify sword purchases. Fear not, I am here for the community. Just in time for Christmas, here are five totally valid scientific reasons you can use to justify the new sword purchase.
Full Afterblow Smackdown: 1&2 vs 2&3
The most common point allocations for Full Afterblow tournaments are 1&2 and 2&3 points. Thanks to HEMA CM we can observe what difference that makes.