Their Arrows Will Darken the Sun: The Evolution and Science of Ballistics

If you are interested in ballistics, this book may interest you. A physicist who has looked into the science of ballistics has decided to cover the subject in the appropriate depth for a wide audience. With that in mind, the author divided his book into two main section. The first describes the history of ballistics from when humans first figured out how to throw stones to today’s ballistic missiles. These 170 pages are mostly descriptive. While there are many charts and graphs interspersed throughout the text, the mathematics are almost non-existent. There is just enough mathematical description to let the reader know that there is science behind what is going on, but it is well hidden. For those who want to get into the mathematics, there are twenty one technical notes in the latter part of the book where you can wallow is as much algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus as you wish.This structure really works well. Those who care about a general description restrict themselves to the first 170 pages. Those with a more scientific bend, have 206 pages to play with. On the whole however, this is an introductory book. So, if you have already studied, or are familiar with various aspects of how various objects travel through the air or space, or are familiar with the history of warfare, you will find this book to be a very shallow introduction to many of the topics. I can see it being used as one of several textbooks in an introductory course to the history of warfare through the ages, or an introductory physics course. On its own though, I am not sure where it exactly fits. Given my own background, I found almost nothing new, and noticed quite a few shortcuts taken by the author and areas that were far more interesting than the author made them out to be. I suppose that was due to the limited page count the author was shooting for, so I cannot fault him for it, but that did detract from my own enjoyment of the book. Hence my final rating of three stars for this effort.

This is an excellent book! It provides a brief history of ballistic weapons. Although the author seems to underplay how complete and detailed a job he does on the science of ballistics it is actually pretty good. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in long distance shooting.

a gift

Unfortunately, this book does not appear to have been carefully fact-checked or edited. It is a nifty topic and written in an engaging style. But Dr. Denny presents at least two factual errors in Chapter 3, one which describes the development of modern firearms. There is an awful lot in this book that is very interesting that I do not have the background experience and training to evaluate. But I *do* know a good bit about modern handguns. To most trained handgunners, the two factual errors I note below might be the equivalent of getting the wrong answer on an American history test question similar to, "Who was the first President of the United States?"I know that theoretical physics is Dr. Denny's academic discipline and not firearms or any other history. But he presents information in this book as authoritative and presents himself as a credible authority. Having found these errors calls into question the credibility of other statements he makes throughout the book, even those pertaining to ballistics. After all, conscientious, detailed fact-checking is important for non-fiction book authors, and I think most would agree it should be all the more important when presenting information outside one's area of expertise.So here goes.On page 56, first paragraph, he describes that a person rapid-firing a double-action revolver will, "...repeatedly pull the trigger, which cocks and fires the gun, ejects the spent cartridge and loads the next round, all from the same trigger pull." In fact, double-action revolvers do not automatically eject spent cartridges and load new rounds. The text actually describes the functioning of a semi-automatic pistol, not a revolver.Speaking of semi-automatic pistols, on page 62, second paragraph, Dr. Denny writes that semi-automatic pistols were invented by Hugo Schmeisser in 1916. In fact, the first commercially successful semi-automatic pistol was designed by Hugo Borchardt and appeared in 1894. Moreover, by 1916, John Browning's famous M1911 .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol had already been adopted (in 1911) by the U.S. Army as its standard sidearm after several years of development and extensive competitive trials.

This is a book on a technical topic by an expert, trying to get across complicated concepts to an educated public but not one knowledgeable in ballistics. I do not have the technical expertise to know how well he does it, so see other reviews for that. I know now how complex the subject is, but I don't think I learned much, because I was unable to figure out several of the things he covered.The book does offer some interesting information. The 7,000 longbowmen at Crecy fired a half million arrows. He describes how a crossbow works, shaped charges and such. I was unaware of the complexity of simply firing a cannonball, say: initial velocity, angle of the cannon, rotation of the ball, factors of wind, gravity, resistance of air, irregularities of propellant, all these and more are involved--I do not have mastery of the various technical terms. I now have much more respect for the technical capacity of designers and operators of such things.

para quem gosta da história das armas é uma boa referência. O Autor faz uma singela compilação de informações disponíveis e permite facilitar a pesquisa. Bom texto para incrementar algumas apresentações sobre a evolução das armas.