What is faster to the 1/4mile - Dragster or Arrow ?

[Benni]

Hi PHers,
no, not a "Quiz" but a serious question (well as serious as the P&P gets) :
A Top Fuel Dragster does the quartermile in about 5 seconds,
how fast would an arrow (not red, jet-powered) reach a target
that is a quartermile away when released from a bow ?
I do not post this in the "Drag Racing" section
as I doubt there is enough "bow-shooting experience" around.
Also, could you expect that this arrow would hit some sort of target,
are the modern high-performance bows/arrows capable of accurate long-distance flights ?
(yes, I´ve seen the corean[?] guy on YT, it is just not what I want to know)
Thanks in advance from
Benni

[Silent1]

According to this page a longbow will not shoot an arrow further than 240 metres. It would leave the bow at ~60ms and arrive at ~ 40ms

So you'd need to race over 1/8th of a mile and i can't find any top fuel specs for 1/8th of a mile (presumably because it's too short)

[ZR1cliff]

There is a time on the slips for 1/8 mile although i would suspect the arrow would beat the reaction time and reach the target as the dragster launched,so it would probably be Arrow v mans reaction time more than Arrow v Dragster.
This has all the potential of the conveyor belt/aircraft debate

[willmcc]

mmm, not so sure, the arrow will not be going straight and level, to get the range it would have to be fired into the air at an angle and the time would have to be calculated to take into account the curved flight path.

There is bound to be a maths wizard along eventually to do the calculation.

[arfur]

And if you aim the arrow at the driver ?

That would make him want to win

[Fatboy]

thegavster said:

I had assumed that the arrow is being released by a human being as well? Therefore both need to react at the start? If not, a 'perfect' reaction for a drag racer is 0.500s, which means the arrow would have a 30m head start, with 170m to go.

A top fuel dragster will do the eigth mile in 3.143s travelling at 261.95mph, I suspect it may catch and overtake the arrow.

gav

Not to metion the slightly off putting fact of a top fueller launching right next to him affecting the archer's ability to fire properly!

[TigerK]

please, nobody ask what would happen if an archer fires an arrow from the seat of a moving top fuel dragster at the quarter mile mark

[Slinky]

Fatboy said:

thegavster said:

I had assumed that the arrow is being released by a human being as well? Therefore both need to react at the start? If not, a 'perfect' reaction for a drag racer is 0.500s, which means the arrow would have a 30m head start, with 170m to go.

A top fuel dragster will do the eigth mile in 3.143s travelling at 261.95mph, I suspect it may catch and overtake the arrow.

gav

Not to metion the slightly off putting fact of a top fueller launching right next to him affecting the archer's ability to fire properly!

And the huge pressure generated by the exhausts potentially pushing the arrow off course..

[8Ace]

I did a bit of archery at Uni. Modern, top level Recurve bows with a draw weight of c. 45lbs would probably shoot (carbon) arrows at c. 220 ft/sec if the bow is properly tuned. Compound bows (the ones with pulleys on the ends of the limbs) would get to more like 300 ft/sec. (When you see one of these things shot it's quite something.)

Theoretically then at 300 ft/s it would take 4 seconds to do the quarter. Not sure about the trajectory but the arrows are so light that they fly pretty flat. My sight was only placed about 1 inch different when I was shooting at 90m to when I was shooting at 18m.

Looking good for the arrow then.

Acuracy wise? Depends on the size of the target but an olympic target is 122cm across. Getting a hit at 400 yards would be damn tricky as they look tiny at 100 yds. I suppose a good archer woudl robably be expected to at least hit the boss though...

[Evil Jack]

TigerK said:

please, nobody ask what would happen if an archer fires an arrow from the seat of a moving top fuel dragster at the quarter mile mark

How about if the dragster was on a conveyer-belt?

[pimpin gimp]

Evil Jack said:

TigerK said:

please, nobody ask what would happen if an archer fires an arrow from the seat of a moving top fuel dragster at the quarter mile mark

How about if the dragster was on a conveyer-belt?

Ah well that's different....

[mel]

fluck knows but I bet Top Gear could string it out to a 1 hour special finding out

[RobM77]

TigerK said:

please, nobody ask what would happen if an archer fires an arrow from the seat of a moving top fuel dragster at the quarter mile mark

I must be unaware of that one That's really simple schoolboy physics; can't believe anyone would get that one wrong. Mind you, so is the plane on a conveyor belt...

[Fatboy]

Slinky said:

Fatboy said:

thegavster said:

I had assumed that the arrow is being released by a human being as well? Therefore both need to react at the start? If not, a 'perfect' reaction for a drag racer is 0.500s, which means the arrow would have a 30m head start, with 170m to go.

A top fuel dragster will do the eigth mile in 3.143s travelling at 261.95mph, I suspect it may catch and overtake the arrow.

gav

Not to metion the slightly off putting fact of a top fueller launching right next to him affecting the archer's ability to fire properly!

And the huge pressure generated by the exhausts potentially pushing the arrow off course..

Or just setting fire to the arrow!

(Yes, I have had my hair singed by a Fuel Funny car)

[King Herald]

Benni said:

Hi PHers,
no, not a "Quiz" but a serious question (well as serious as the P&P gets) :
A Top Fuel Dragster does the quartermile in about 5 seconds,
how fast would an arrow (not red, jet-powered) reach a target
that is a quartermile away when released from a bow ?
I do not post this in the "Drag Racing" section
as I doubt there is enough "bow-shooting experience" around.
Also, could you expect that this arrow would hit some sort of target,
are the modern high-performance bows/arrows capable of accurate long-distance flights ?
(yes, I´ve seen the corean[?] guy on YT, it is just not what I want to know)
Thanks in advance from
Benni

So, what you're saying is can you kill a drag racer with a bow and arrow?

[lunarscope]

I reckon a rocket car (a la Sammy Miller's) would easily beat an arrow.
They do a standing 1/4 mile in approx 3 seconds.

[Eurodragster.com]

thegavster said:

a 'perfect' reaction for a drag racer is 0.500s, which means the arrow would have a 30m head start, with 170m to go.

A perfect reaction for a drag racer is 0.000 seconds, so the arrow would not get a head start.

Time was when the RT was described as the time to move after the last amber lit, which depending upon class was 0.400 or 0.500, but not any more. Nowadays we describe RTs with the green lighting as t=0.

[RobM77]

lunarscope said:

I reckon a rocket car (a la Sammy Miller's) would easily beat an arrow.
They do a standing 1/4 mile in approx 3 seconds.

If Mr Hammond's anything to go by, you stand a good chance of ending the run like an arrow as well - with your head buried in the mud..

[s2art]

8Ace said:

I did a bit of archery at Uni. Modern, top level Recurve bows with a draw weight of c. 45lbs would probably shoot (carbon) arrows at c. 220 ft/sec if the bow is properly tuned. Compound bows (the ones with pulleys on the ends of the limbs) would get to more like 300 ft/sec. (When you see one of these things shot it's quite something.)

Theoretically then at 300 ft/s it would take 4 seconds to do the quarter. Not sure about the trajectory but the arrows are so light that they fly pretty flat. My sight was only placed about 1 inch different when I was shooting at 90m to when I was shooting at 18m.

Looking good for the arrow then.

Acuracy wise? Depends on the size of the target but an olympic target is 122cm across. Getting a hit at 400 yards would be damn tricky as they look tiny at 100 yds. I suppose a good archer woudl robably be expected to at least hit the boss though...

In days of Yore, when men were men, I understand that some archers could handle a draw weight of 150 lb +. That might make a difference.

[cyberface]

s2art said:

8Ace said:

I did a bit of archery at Uni. Modern, top level Recurve bows with a draw weight of c. 45lbs would probably shoot (carbon) arrows at c. 220 ft/sec if the bow is properly tuned. Compound bows (the ones with pulleys on the ends of the limbs) would get to more like 300 ft/sec. (When you see one of these things shot it's quite something.)

Theoretically then at 300 ft/s it would take 4 seconds to do the quarter. Not sure about the trajectory but the arrows are so light that they fly pretty flat. My sight was only placed about 1 inch different when I was shooting at 90m to when I was shooting at 18m.

Looking good for the arrow then.

Acuracy wise? Depends on the size of the target but an olympic target is 122cm across. Getting a hit at 400 yards would be damn tricky as they look tiny at 100 yds. I suppose a good archer woudl robably be expected to at least hit the boss though...

In days of Yore, when men were men, I understand that some archers could handle a draw weight of 150 lb +. That might make a difference.

Those guys were 4 foot tall and 4 foot wide though weren't they? My old house was a couple of hundred years old and the doors and ceilings were as short as hell. And I'm only 5'11" so no beanpole.