Science Breakthrough: Plate Armor is Heavy

[The Madman]

You'd think if they were going to do a study about something so mind-numbingly obvious they'd at least make sure to do it right, but as others have pointed out they don't seem to be taking into account that the wearer of such armour would be trained and experienced in its use. There's no denying it's heavy, I mean really a bloody scale can determine that, but if you want to somehow judge how it effected battlefields and combat conditions you've got to take the human element into account as well.

You wouldn't just randomly send a group of people into a tank expecting them to have the knowledge and experience to use it right, if at all. Same for their medieval counterparts.

A more appropriate study would be to have selected groups wearing the armour and exercising in it on a regular basis over the course of a few months then have a control group that are brought in for testing without the same experience. Ideally you would even have different groups in different types of armour over different amounts of time.

But then that would also be expensive and time consuming, so I guess they decided to go with the more obvious approach.

SCIENCE

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

OMG, every mmorpg ever everywhere has lied to me.

I doubt half the raids in World of Warcraft would be as fun if the tanks had to run to avoid an aoe insta-kill attack, only to stop every few moments to puke their guts out from exhaustion.

I think this experiment glazes over the truly nastier aspects of wearing full plate armour, that is it took half an hour to put on with help and they didn't have time to take it off if they needed to go to the bathroom. So, yeah, let your imaginations run riot with that imagery.

 

[iblis666]

this is why i only wear heavily enchanted magic armor when i go into the field

erm..well..Obvious result is obvious I guess...I do believe I saw a Mythbusters episode about this ages ago..and this is pretty, to use that word again, obvious....Common sense really, that plate armour weighs you down when walking towards the battlefield and making you burn out faster =/

was that the one where they were testing out paper armor as opposed to plate?

 

[mrdude2010]

scientists have made another stunning breakthrough: members of the ursine family tend to defecate in forested areas

 

[Hungry Donner]

I seem to recall one tale of a knight who would swim across the Nile river and back every morning in a full suit of armor.

I bet he went through oil like it was going out of fashion!

I remember reading about a knight climbing up the underside of a ladder in full plate, and about scaling a wall - although I don't know it's height (probably not as tall as the one in [iThe Court Jester[/i] though).

With sufficient practice people can do some amazing things. There are archers who can hit a bulls-eye while riding a horse at a full gallop - and it's not like they're doing this professionally so practice has to fit around the rest of their life. When things like this were your life you had plenty of time to get good at it - and to get used to it.

 

[Crystalgate]

60 to 110 pounds? Isn't that jousting armor? I could have sworn that armor they used in war was much lighter.

 

[commasplice]

Snip

I will defer to your wisdom because, judging from your avatar, you are clearly a doctor. You know science.

 

[The V Man]

60 to 110 pounds? Isn't that jousting armor? I could have sworn that armor they used in war was much lighter.

Very right - the top end would be 65-75lbs in kit spread across the entire body. And for a warrior class that were professionals and trained all their life, it was a second skin.

We're treading very close to Victorian views here. Even a cursory Googling of the subject turns up information that's been commonly known since the 1960's (and before).

Anyone interested in the truth of the matter should look up Ewart Oakeshott's works.

-V

 

[Double A]

breaking news: water is wet. Also: ice is cold

MY LIFE IS A LIE! Next thing you know, fire will be hot trees made of wood! What is the world coming to!?


Anyway... My LARPing friend told me that plate mail is heavy, but so is chainmail. Plate evenly distributes its weight all across your body, but chain puts all its weight on your shoulders. It's also why he prefers plate mail.

 

[blankedboy]

MY GOD BREAKTHROUGH

Who did this ;-;

 

[bushwhacker2k]

this is the first time that anyone's ever gone at it scientifically.

Methinx someone ist bluffing?

Interesting, tho, I think

 

[KarlMonster]

60 to 110 pounds? Isn't that jousting armor? I could have sworn that armor they used in war was much lighter.

The actual article abstract says:
"By the fifteenth century, a typical suit of field armour weighed between 30 and 50 kg and was distributed over the entire body. How much wearing armour affected Medieval soldiers' locomotor energetics and biomechanics is unknown. We investigated the mechanics and the energetic cost of locomotion in armour, and determined the effects on physical performance."

So, the study was a LITTLE more comprehensive than ensuing media articles let on. The abstract article is here:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/07/15/rspb.2011.0816

 

[puffy786]

Um. Armor is heavy? How is that new?

 

[justnotcricket]

Heavily armored knights also often went into battle on horseback, which again takes some of the weight off of them.

This is why I have always felt sorry for the horses =P Besides, from what I've read, medieval warhorses weren't as, uh, majestic as we might imagine them to be. Strong, yes. Massive, not so much.

 

[Jedisolo75]

"In other breaking news, sex is fun."

Wouldn't you like to be apart of that scientific research?

 

[masher]

But... stat points even out the added weight..? Right? Right!??

 

[TheDooD]

erm..well..Obvious result is obvious I guess...I do believe I saw a Mythbusters episode about this ages ago..and this is pretty, to use that word again, obvious....Common sense really, that plate armour weighs you down when walking towards the battlefield and making you burn out faster =/

it a was pretty recent one it was chinese armor being compared to paper armor.

 

[Tiger Sora]

I feel like you Escapists English blokes should sue if any of the money that want to this was from the Government. Cause this has only been irrelevant for over 400 years.

 

[infohippie]

I seem to recall one tale of a knight who would swim across the Nile river and back every morning in a full suit of armor.

Oh, his squire would've loved him. Every evening having to scrub down the whole suit of armour with cloths and a wire brush, and re-oil it to stop it rusting.