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Friday, April 5, 2013

Shurikens!

 home-made bo-shurikens photo 027.jpg

Shurikens were made by the Japanese for the use of warfare. The Japanese wanted to have a weapon small enough to be easily concealed and carry around without anyone noticing. The name shuriken in Japanese mean "sword hidden in the hand." The art of weilding a shuriken is known as shuriken jutsu and was mainly taught as a minor. Shurikens are generally used by throwing and it could fly in a distance from the user to attack the opponent or object. Like ninjas who were most commonly known as assassins usually carry shurikens with them when they go on missions or other assassination attempts.

 As the picture displayed above shurikens can have many different forms sizes and shapes to them. For example the picture on the right, there shurikens that looks like big needles which are called boshurikens, which is far different looking than a regular shuriken. Whether wielding any type of shuriken it takes a lot of time and effort to be adept at throwing them accurately at a directed target.

Trebuchet!



Trebuchet is a siege weapon like other siege weapons are use to hurl objects far into the air and can cause serious damage, but the trebuchet is a lot more powerful than just a regular catapult. As the picture is displayed the trebuchet is much more complex and differently built than a regular catapult.The machine is powered exclusively by gravity, most often directly the means of a counter weight.  What is so incredible about this invention is that it could fling projectiles of up to three hundred and fifty pounds into the air!

Usually this mechanism was built like other catapults to demolish barriers with a great amount of force such as against stone walls and other big buildings. The trebuchet is usually launched with small boulders that could cause serious damage, towards a group of army or crumbling walls. The trebuchet was widely adopted and it appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the twelve century. 

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Catapults!



Catapults were one of the best mechanism used in warfare in ancient times. It's sole purpose was to hurl big chunks of rock across the battlefield while being a far enough distance to be safe away from the enemy. It was first created by the ancient Greeks that needed to figure out an idea how to bring down an enemy stone walls without sending men into the battlefield.

The catapult was influenced by the mechanism of a crossbow which had a torsion that could sent a piece of wood flying, so then it inspired the Greek to create something more powerful and could be shot from a distance, so then the catapult was invented. Surprisingly during the construction of the first catapult there was a lot of geometry and physics ideas implanted into it! After the catapult invention, the idea traveled throughout Europe and it was later adopted by other countries to use catapults.