P3_4 Knights in Shining Armour: The joust

Abstract

The aim of this project was to determine the characteristics of the power of a lance strike from a heavily armoured knight with the aim to draw comparisons with modern weaponry. A knight wielding a lance riding upon a destrier warhorse at full gallop delivers a blow with the energy of a typical hand gun round (.45ACP) at 541J and the equivalent momentum transfer of being struck by a 1kg bag of sugar thrown out of the cockpit of an F1 car doing it’s top speed of around 230mph (104Nm).