Geometry Grab Bag
A small collection of things too small to deserve their own article.
Physics
Control Theory
You don’t have to understand crazy math with imaginary numbers to appreciate the principles of control theory. They can be applied to sword fighting, and might give you a different perspective on your training or interpretations.
Sword cutting… and how the target pushes back!
When cutting, the sword exerts force on the target, and the target exerts force right back on the sword. This force is what causes cuts to be less effective, and possibly fail. And where does it come from?
What Does Hitting Hard Mean?
From a physics point of view hitting ‘hard’ can be a somewhat difficult property to quantify. Learn a little bit about what can make a strike ‘hard’.
How Fast Do Swords Move? – Try 1
My first attempt at motion capture. It wasn’t great, but I got something. And you can all laugh and learn from my mistakes.
Introduction to Material Properties
When understanding equipment it’s important to have a basic understanding of material properties, and — most importantly — how they interact.
Force Vector: More than a science-ey sounding name
I’m guessing most probably don’t care too much about what the difference between a vector and a scalar is. Trust me, it can be a helpful tool for learning to beat people up.
What is Force Dispersion? And how it keeps you safe from swords.
How our gear keeps us safe is an important topic, especially if we ever want to make it safer!
Impact, Impulse, and Momentum
Sometimes people talk about how much ‘force’ something hits with. Unfortunately, they use the same term to describe average force, peak force, and impulse.
The Myth of Control
Why going at high intensity and having perfect control is not physically possible, no matter how much we want it to be.