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Old 08-14-2008, 12:19 PM
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AF Hunter
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Iowa (Heartland USA)
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Default Velocity of Arrow Vs Speed of Sound

Another post got me to thinking:
An arrow travelling at 270 feet per second at 60 feet takes approximately 1/5th of a second to get to the target. Sound travels at the speed of 1129 feet per second. It takes 1/20th of a second to reach the target. So if you shoot at a deer at 20 yards it has 3/20ths of a second to react.

At 30 yards, the arrow takes 1/3rd of a second to get to the target and the sound takes 2/25ths of a second to get there giving the deer at 30 yards 19/75ths of a second to react.

At 40 yards, the arrow takes 11/25ths of a second to get to the target and the sound takes 1/10th of a second to get there giving the deer about 1/3rd of a second to react.

So the longer the shot, less time to react. Even though I'm talking a fraction of a second, I always see the buck duck when the shot is taken. I just think its amazing how fast they react to a single sound when I know no human being could react the same way. I guess it comes from living their whole life always on guard for predators.

I know the preceeding information was pretty much useless to anyone, but once again I was over analyzing.
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