t's certain that, under the forces listed, that the ballista would tear itself apart trying to impart the level of energy required.
Given that the bolt accelerates over ~2m (6 ft), you're imparting something like 20mil ft.lbs. Assuming a cross sectional area of ~10cm2 for the bolt, that's roughly 3000 Nm2 of force. Steel has a tensile strength of ~370 MPa so the steel bolt would shatter.
I'm an idiot, the steel would deform plastically not shatter so the ballistae would just be shooting bent bolts.
level 3
Shite_Redditor
16 points·
2 days ago
The shaft of the bolt is also made of wood. No way it would survive.
level 4
BenevolentCheese
12 points·
1 day ago
Not to mention the effect of the recoil on the boat. If the bolt blasts off at 11m newtons, the ballista mount (and thus the boat) needs to
withstand 11m newtons.
level 5
SpongeBobBattlepants
9 points·
1 day ago
So they invented a new form of boat propulsion by using the recoil of the super mega balistae that can shoot dragon seeking projectiles at mach five.
level 6
ketcraftyak
2 points·
1 day ago
Anything 100 ft under water in the direction they’re firing “were fecked”
level 6
Erudain
1 point·
23 hours ago
that's how Euron fleet appears to magically teleport and surprise Dany fleets....they just point the ballista backwards and shot