hey it's me Destin welcome back to
smarter every day so in one of the last
episodes I introduced you to a legend
with a longbow he's from my hometown and
his name is Byron Ferguson he shot an
aspirin out of the air in slow motion
but there's something that happened in
the arrow I didn't understand it was
deflecting and this has something to do
with what's called the archers paradox
what do you think Byron archers
furnivall she's the demon for all archer
there are ways to work around
not bad alright so today on smarter
every day we're gonna understand how an
arrow deflects and what's called the
archers paradox a paradox is a situation
involving two things with a
contradictory nature so what is the
archers paradox what are the two things
that an archer has to deconflict my
friend John explained it to me like this
let's pretend that this pecan tree is
the bow and this is the line of our
bowstring if we take an arrow and we put
it into our bow and we draw the bow back
and we're trying to hit that target over
there watch what happens as we release
the bowstring and it travels closer to
the bow look at that the fact that the
bow is sitting here in our way between
us and the target causes the arrow to
point off in a different direction
so how can we possibly hit that target
when our arrow is pointed over there
this is the archers paradox because we
know they actually do hit targets like
that toy designers are cheaters they
don't deal with the paradox they just
get around it for example the guy who
designed this suction-cup bow he doesn't
go around the handle straight through
the middle check that out whoever
designed this crossbow instead of being
in line with the bow itself the string
is offset by this big rail that way the
string is always pushing along the dart
so how does a longbow shooter get around
this problem here's how they don't have
a completely rigid arrow like that they
have a bendable arrow like this see when
it vibrates you can see these nodal
points that's important check this out
as we put this real arrow into the bow
here and we shoot as we go towards the
bow the fact that we're accelerating
this arrow causes it to build up strain
energy causing this big curvature that
curvature then snaps back in the other
direction once it bends to a certain
point and look what we have we have the
arrow bending around the bow when we
release it does something cool it snakes
around the bow just like this and you're
able to fly all the way to the target so
the archers paradox is the fact that you
have a bow in between you and the target
and you're still able to get around the
bow the first thing that happens is the
arrow beings from the pressure of the
string and the from arabic and against
riser of the boat as it leaves the bow
that's already clear of the boat it
bends in the opposite direction where
those two cross determines where the
arrow will fly 100% of time the arrow
will fly to where these two points are
crossed are pointed in other words if
this one had been here then the air is
gonna fly off to the left if it was here
there a fly off to the right we want
those two lined up you're straight to
the target gotcha so so the fact that it
bends helps it get around the air arrest
without going off at an angle as it's
run a straight line correctly you're
pushing the string straight towards the
handle but somehow it makes it around
the handle right and the bends are how
it does that's correct
all right buddy Xander actually shoots
with a compound bow you don't do any
that longbow stuff right I have one but
I'm not really good what's the deal here
so compound there's a whole lot more
going on a compound these there's more
things can go wrong too but there are
several advantages if they're working
yeah so the compound you see that it's
cut out in the middle get this oh so the
risers notched out is what you're saying
yeah so the arrow is traveling straight
it doesn't have to go around a riser
okay and many people shoot also a drop
away rest I see the girls kind of drop
down whenever you pull the bow back a
string attached to one of the bow
strings pulls the rest up nice sinners
your arrow if you have it all lined up
squared Ryo is nice and level and then
when you shoot that arrow would drop the
rest will drop will shoot it shoot it
let's do it I don't know wait let me
zoom in right so I'm looking at that
wrist that's gonna fall away right real
fast okay ready dude that is super fast
so is the arrow touching the rest as it
goes through a bit really cuz it drops
but it's not I mean
immediate it's down before they go arrow
passes it so the goal here is you don't
have to bend around the riser but I bet
the arrow still bends though does bent
and that's actually important in the
straightness of the arrow flight and
that interesting but something else is
going on here Byron Ferguson is able to
predict the wobbling of that arrow so
good that he's able to hit an aspirin
tablet with a vibrating arrow just like
that so one of two things is going on
either a he knows some science that we
don't or B he's a warlock and this is
all black magic okay the stiffness of an
arrow is called the spa
right and so the spine is what burn oh
so this is your spine tester this is the
spine tester so that right now to test
the deflection of a carbon arrow okay
so we're actually have a two-pound
weight and they are suspended 26 inches
that's for carbon ok we'll read the
inside of the scale here to see how much
did it deflection so you you test all of
your arrows before you shoot so that you
can normalize the paradox and that's how
you're able to hit things like an
aspirin yes that's right there's a
little bit of skill if it's out of
Tolerance you just don't even put it in
your quiver really really you just got a
box of stuff that you don't shoot yeah
they're 200 dollars really that's
amazing so people were asking in the
last video that arrow was deflecting so
much they're saying how do you time that
and their way you time that is you know
the exact spine of the arrow that's
awesome
that's pretty good information so this
isn't black magic this is science right
that's awesome Byron is using science to
normalize the wobble of his arrows but
let's admit there's a little bit of
wizardry here right because of a certain
distance from his bow he still has to
know which side of the arrow that
wobbles gonna be on and then he has to
line that up with an aspirin tablets so
this is a pretty good shot in order to
fully appreciate this trickshot I'm
gonna do a trick shot of my own using
the Phantom Miro
[Music]
I hope you enjoyed this episode of
smarter every day it was sponsored by
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it that way excellent all right I'm
gonna film this with the Phantom V 711 I
hope you hit it this will be awesome
like I thought you would do it but you
did it this first shot burn okay
whatever man-- alright there you go so
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and thank you as always
byron you can I'm Destin you're getting
smarter every day have a good one you
actually get that you make your own
arrowheads right
[Music]
holy cow it didn't break man it's hidden
right it didn't break
did you think it would do that I was
hoping