Depends on models, the wookie produce many variants of bowcaster, and chewie modified his multiple ones, but generally, we see in ROTS that a bowcaster can damage a snail droid, a medium vehicle, so yeah, bowcasters are no joke
Have you ever tried these things in the Jedi Knight games? In Jedi Academy it has two modes: a bouncy shot and a charged shot. The bouncy shot ricochets around off of surfaces and deals a good amount of damage. The charged shot can fire a wide spread of low power bolts when uncharged, sorta like a semi-auto shotgun, or when charged fires one extremely high power shot, which if used point-blank sends the target flying, like ridiculously fast... You won't get it until you see it happen, it's hilarious. Also, lore-wise, bowcasters actually use a solid projectile encased in a shell of plasma, which makes it stupidly powerful, as not only does it have high stopping power, but since it uses solid projectiles, it can actually penetrate energy shields. Not even mentioning the possibilities added by having a solid projectile: you could add poisonous darts, explosives, toxic gas, and other stuff inside the projectile for additional utility...
Yup. I immediately remembered using the bowcaster in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, where you can charge it for extra damage by holding the trigger down. This makes it an incredibly versatile weapon, able to function as an infantry rifle, sniper, or even a light artillery or anti-tank sort of weapon. Conceivably, charging your shots for extra power would come at the cost of increased battery usage, meaning you'd get less shots per battery the more often you used the overcharge feature.
And it different cewies one is from a stormtrooper plaster he just modified it to look like one form his home plant the ones from home was way way more powerful
If I recall right. Written in the rules of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. The Wookie Bowcaster is able to either fire high powered Blaster Bolts or real physical Bolts that can vary in different modes. Like the typical bolt that stops a target quietly or a bolt that can punch through armor or a bolt that can set troopers on fire. Also, the Bowcaster is highly custom to the Wookie that made it. As you can see with Chewie's Bowcaster. Its base is an E-11 Blaster Rifle. Yet it is modified to fire different types of effects. Even going full-auto. Which is not that effective at launching a poor trooper through ten decks. Yet still drop a group. Still, never argue with a Wookie. Let them win. Or they will rip your arms off and beat you with them.
@@blastech4095 I think that was due to hitting the engine or something, the bowcaster was definitely powerful in the original trilogy but they seem to have turned it up to 11 in the new one.
As for the AT-ST on Endor; never discount the element of surprise and the chaos caused by a rogue walker. Plus, the AT-ST might have had a better rate of fire than the bowcaster.
I'd like to point out that this is all assuming earth standard gravity. Starkiller base was built from Ilum, a small planet. It could be possible that the gravitational force was considerably lower than earth explaining some of the distance traveled by the trooper.
@@TheKenji2221 Sorry for the spoiler in that case. Don't worry too much. It's almost not a spoiler. Plenty of people I know who have beaten the game missed it.
I have a couple suggestions for you Henry: 1) Since you did a video on the Nebulon B and what it looked like in imperial service, can you do one on it’s successor the Nebulon C and what that looked like in New Republic service? 2) Can you also do a video on what the Resistance Bunkerbuster looked like in it’s prime? The front half looks like it’s been stripped.
I love you, man! You literally just used the apparent acceleration of the stunt guy falling back from blaster recoil results in the conclusion that Cherie’s bow caster produces enough ballistic stopping power to launch the stormtrooper into orbit. You are THE MAN, EC Henry
The Last Order sith troopers have an underslung 'grenade launcher' based on the bowcaster. So canonically the bowcaster is comparable to a grenade launcher in power.
Not only did it knock the stormtrooper back a good few meters, the trooper also hit the door with enough force to shatter a part of his plastiod armour.
Maybe Starkiller base has less gravity than Earth. I remember seeing somewhere that it is a really tiny planet, so it would make sense that it has lower gravity. That would explain why the arc that the stormtrooper follows is so straight, he is just falling at a much slower rate. A possible way to test this theory, is by timing Han’s fateful fall down the air shaft.
@@marrqi7wini54 Maybe the gravity generators are worn by the characters. We know that personal shields are a thing. Maybe Gravity field generators are small enough to fit in the heal of a boot.
It's possible Chewie was out of Quarrels so he was basically only firing a Blaster Bolt by then after firing so many Blaster-bolt-encased railgun slugs.
The silliest thing from the new trilogy (even beyond being able to see the starkiller weapons beams and hits from a different planet in a different solar system) is Han appearing to only now having tried chewies bowcaster. He's a bloke, he'd have asked to try it the day after chewie got it.
All the more ludicrous that Kylo Ren can take a direct shot to the chest and survive with little injury. Even though we've seen Jedi die to much weaker weapons.
Also keep in mind Kylo Ren can literally stop blaster bolts mid-air, so one can only assume he used the force but was simply to slow to react to entirely stop it.
@@austinp.2259 Bowcaster shots are supposed to be a physical projectile with blaster energy surrounding it to burn away some armor. They also sometimes have explosive warheads. Though they CAN still fire just a plain blaster bolt if they run out of quarrels.
It would make a lot more sense to think of the power of the bowcaster in terms of Joules, not Newtons. Newtons are force, Joules are energy. It's calculated that the storm trooper is accelerated in the time of 1 frame, but we really have no idea exactly how much time the force was applied, only the maximum time.
Transferring the same amount of the kinetic energy (or rather, momentum) in less than "maximum" time then it would actually require more force. And we only have assumptions for the mass of target (stormtrooper), the mass of the projectile (wookiee bolt), and the losses of inelastic collision - so the effects of force (N) are discussed because fewer assumptions need to be made.
The last measurement shown gives an energy ~1/30th that of a modern combat round/kinetic penetrator (APFSDS). Also about 1/6th that of the WWII Sherman's 76.2mm APHECBC M61 round. It is very powerful. It is still on par with what I would call a tank round, and is definitely a howitzer like the man said. Though not a super powerful one as that 76 can only penetrate ~124mm or 4 and 3/4 inches (a lot ik) but doesn't penetrate the troopers armor. Like how other blasters have different settings and tanks have many different round types, Peter A. Michaelson has mentioned that the bowcaster can be charged for different power outputs! Very cool! In the new movies they fire few shots and very slowly for comedic effect. Definitely allows each shot to use more power w/o reserve.
He's way off in his comparison. A 120mm main gun on an M1 tank fires a shot that produces about 9.5 million lb force -- 200 times that of the calculated bowcaster. Even a standard APC round from the Sherman's 76mm L/52 produces 1,604,935 lb force or 34 times the force of the bowcaster. The bowcaster in actuality is about three times as powerful a modern 50 cal sniper rifle used by the US army. So, yeah, powerful a for a hand held weapon, but not anywhere near that of a tank gun - even a WW2 tank like a Sherman.
@@calessel3139 You're using Force. Did you mean pressure? The projectile is so much smaller pressure is a very relevant factor. I was comparing energy. Energy is the messenger momentum is the message. The problem is that this is not just a kinetic energy penetrator so energy is what should be used then add the benefit of the doubt from the plasma. No matter which metric is used it is still at least 6 times weaker than either of the rounds were talking about as I said. I agree with you that the bowcaster is quite a ways off from a high velocity AT kinetic penetrator from WWII. Would you mind explaining how you got the force there since acceleration is used. That is not a commonly known metric
@@nicholaspratt8473 I was calculating Kinetic Energy. The round is 8.35 kg and the mv is 1750 mps for the 120mm and 6.8 kg and 800 mps for the 76mm on the sherman.
.300 Winchester Magnum has an impact energy of around 4000 lbs. Going with the lower estimate on the bowcasters force, that puts it solidly in the realm of a human hunting rifle... which actually wouldn't be all that out of character for a Wookie to carry, now would it?
Yeah, he's way off. A round 120mm main gun on a M1 tank would produce about 9.5 million lb force which is roughly 200 times more force than the Chewies bowcaster-gun. In reality the bow-gun would have about as much power as a single round from a 2cm KwK L/55 as fired from German light armored cars from WW2 -- like the Sdkfz-222 or 234/1.
Still if I was a Wookie, I'd carry a MWC-35c "Staccato Lightning" repeating cannon [Baze's mini gun from Rogue One] one handed and use a Gungan force shield in the off hand. The MWC-35c's power backpack is more like a large fanny pack or a cross chest pack for a Wookie. _And imagine if it was customised…_
I personally would always go with a disruptor sniper rifle of some sort, I'm guessing Mando's rifle is a disruptor because it has the same effect as the disruptors in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. 🤔
I like the effect of the disrupt or rifle. Thought it was interesting how it was breach loaded like the guns US Calvary used after the civil war. Though, why not make it with a magazine? To get a much higher rate of fire…. Still, it’s a really cool limitation on the weapon.
YES!! In the next SW movie we need to see a Wookie with either a MWC-35C or a rapid-fire blater canon. (Fired one handed of course). *There was a Republic Commando that had one of these, just don't know the model name. As seen in that cutscene with the smuggler from a KOTOR game awhile back. Never played it so don't have much info on it.
4:37 I mean, an AT-ST could probably shrug off a shell from a modern tank, so the bowcaster might not actually be that effective. In the Mandalorian, Mando says that he's seen a single AT-ST take out an entire company of soldiers, so I'm inclined to believe that it does take an AT-ST to break an AT-ST.
I'd like to point out that the bowcaster isn't some magic space tech, it's a magnetic accelerator weapon. People have built similar devices in their garage, though nowhere near as powerful.
Just a thought, what is the gravity of Starkiller base? That would affect the arc of the fall after the blast, and in "Standard Gravity" aboard the ship (at 4:35) we do see a more realistic arc.
I'm more keen on the idea that the bowcaster hit with the force of a car-crash instead of a tank gun, if only for continuity purposes. If it where THAT powerful it would be tearing walls and ground apart near the impact point. And since the bowcaster is supposed to fire a plasma bolt, it's already impressive that it would knock down someone like that in the first place.
Since your into analysing the physics … what is the *firepower increase* of a _Xyston compared to a Imperial 1 ISD_ once you take into account the 50% size increase? And what if this level of firepower upgrade was applied to other ships? … … The Xyston technology was reverse engineered and went mainstream (there were a LOT of random ships from across the galaxy around to examine and salvage after the battle). Apply the figures to other iconic ships, maybe a A-Wing can now take down a SSD bridge without having to ram? CR-90's that can one shot a ISD? X-Wings? And what if the Millennium Falcon had a mini Xyston gun fitted? Still the most interesting figures are if it's scaled down to Xyston hand weapons. Forget Chewies Bowcaster, it no longer matters if Han shot first or not, because the collateral damage of either Solo's or Greedo's shot would take out the Cantina and a fair part of Mos Esly as well.
Perhaps the trajectory of the trooper's body is appropriate for the gravitational force of Star Killer base. The gravity could very easily be less than Earth standard.
I always assumed that this shot was on one of the higher power settings and the pirate shot (aboard Han & Chewie's freighter) was a lesser one. Especially since they were insidr the ship in space. Wouldn't want a stray shot going through thr hull or anything, now would he?
@@earlware4322 Exactly. A stray shot at full power could blow a hole and suck them all out into outer space, and unlike the Stormtroopers, they don't have suits that can survive in a vacuum.
The knock back may also be due to the nature of the armor, which dispersed damage and incapacitated the trooper (assuming the first order armor is close enough to Imperial storm trooper armor). So instead of the blast going with enough force to puncture, the force is instead dispersed leading to him flying.
While the general idea of this is correct (the trooper's flight path isn't realistic), there's a bit of a math issue - we shouldn't be discussing this in terms of force, but rather impulse. Any time there's a collision between two bodies, there's going to be a massive force for a miniscule time. It's a bit arbitrary to say that the trooper was accelerated over 1/24 of a second - why not assume he was accelerated to full speed in a tenth of a frame (1/240 of a second), but at ten times the force? Since we're discussing a single impact, rather than a continuous thrust, what we really care about in this instance is the impulse, which is the total change in velocity, disregarding the time it takes to get there (it's the product of acceleration and time, which equals velocity). Assuming 7.5 m/s impulse and a 93.27 kg trooper, the bolt imparts a momentum (mass times velocity) of almost exactly 700 kg m s. The kinetic energy (mass times velocity squared) imparted is at least 5250 J. I say at least because in most weapons, a significant portion of the kinetic energy is dissipated as impact damage. The kinetic energy of the trooper's knock back is only about as much as three times the muzzle energy of some Colt .45 ammunition (1600 J). So why don't you get thrown across the room if you get hit by a bullet? Look at the formulas for momentum versus kinetic energy - velocity has much more effect on kinetic energy. A bullet is a low mass object traveling at high velocity, so it carries low momentum but can cause significant damage. Blaster bolts travel about as fast as a major league baseball. This means for a bolt traveling slow enough that we can see it for two frames to throw a trooper that fast, it must be pretty darn massive! It looks like it takes between one and two frames (let's say one) to cross the roughly two meters we can see it for. That's 24 meters per second - that bowcaster bolt must weigh almost 30 kg!
Aside from physics, there is a distinct difference between a solid metal slug & a bolt of heated plasma that is magnetically contained like a Molotov Cocktail of sorts…
Actually, you can explain the length of the trooper flying backwards a different way, the planet starkiller base is made from has different gravity to it. Although, I'm not sure how good of an explanation that is, given that you see a certain someone falling down a large pit really fast in the movie. Also, chewie probably wanted to drive the at-st, there wasn't any significance to it in the battle, other than him taking it for a joyride.
This is all well and good, and I don't doubt your math, but you've overlooked a key fact about Bowcasters; they're not energy weapons, but projectile weapons. They fire metal quarrels via electromagnetism that are encased in plasma and designed to explode on impact. Therefore the 'power' of each shot would be dependent on what kind of explosive each shot is using. This could also explain why Chewie hijacked the AT-ST, as Bowcasters had limited ammunition (6 to 36 shots) per magazine compared to hundred(s) for a blaster. There's a decent chance he was running out of ammo, given he was facing an entire legion of targets.
You're probably overestimating the weight of the armor. That duraplast doesn't weigh very much, and is mostly there to save you from shrapnel and debris. It's not like real body armor that stops bullets and weighs a ton
I always assumed that this shot was on one of the higher power settings of Chewie's bowcaster and the pirate shot (aboard Han & Chewie's freighter) was on a lesser one. Especially since they were inside the ship, in space. Wouldn't want a stray shot going through thr hull or anything, now would he? Great video and analysis! I've always known Wookiee's weapons, especially Chewie's bowcaster, were insanely powerful and thus assumed when/if a human ever used one they'd be thrown backwards by the recoil...sounds like a neat idea for another video! 😏
as soon as EC said "which gives us the acceleration of 180m/s", I laughed so hard at the absurdity of the number, as it = 648km/h or 402.65mph! back to watching the vid
He meant to say meters per second per second, aka acceleration is the derivative of speed. Not that the trooper was ever moving at that speed, the period of acceleration was just a fraction of a second.
That has always annoyed me, but if Kylo can stop Poe’s blaster shot on jakku, than I think he definitely has a solid shot at at least slowing Chewie’s crossbow bolt, which is actually partially made up by a projectile, which in my mind would be easier to stop than just a full-on plasma shot. That being said, the crossbow bolt is still partially plasma, so I think that may be the part that hit kylo, because it definitely looks more like a normal blaster shot that a crossbow shot. Maybe I’m thinking about this too much...
To be fair, He did show a considerable amount of distress after killing his father, so maybe he wasn’t exactly prepared for Chewbacca, who was relatively far from him to fire. Poe however, was relatively close, allowing kylo to probably sense where he was.
Alongside the element of the Asymmetrical warfare of the Ewoks + Rebels vs Imperial garrison forces: The hijacking of the AT-ST was definitely for the element of surprise, rate of fire, and covering ground to reach back to Han Solo. Came to that thought as well due to Chewies life bond with Han, he wanted to make sure to clear a path quick in an armored agile platform to get back to his best friends whom were pinned down until the point of reaching them. Was also good comical relief to get Han to have to go change his pants after the shenanigans of popping up out of the hatch lol!
The CGI artist: They told me to make him go boom. I made him go boom. And now this nerd is analyzing everything I do. I didn't get paid enough for this
the assumption that throws a wrench in everything: assuming the sequel trilogy actually paid attention to detail and didnt just think "make boom boom make dude go fast fast" That being said, another great vid :) thanks
In star wars I never thought of the blasters as lasers. I saw them more as particle cannon type weapons. This explains (well explains better than heat lasers haha) how blasters seem cause kinetic force energy.
Its also possible that the trooper was impacted below their center of mass and while it looked like their trajectory was straight back initially it actually had a bit of initial lift which you do not see because the trooper is tumbling
I think the disparity between the trooper's knockback and that of most other targets is the result of armor, at least presuming the Stormtrooper armor to have real function beyond being a costume that tells you their faction. I also like to view the Bowcaster as not a typical blaster, but rather a rail gun of sorts, the spheres on the ends of the bow being the housing for a magnetic propulsion system driving a physical projectile, which looks like a blaster bolt due to burn off of an outer layer of protective coating... Teflon tracer, if you will. The projectile is actually much faster than the burnoff however, with the burning particles following in it's wake, but arriving at the target much slower, even though it's difficult to appreciate in the fraction of a second it takes. If you combine this theory with the concept that Stormtrooper armor (at least First Order era) is designed to be more protective against higher velocity projectiles, then unprotected targets would lose most of that knockback due to penetration. Throughout all eras of Star Wars, we still see most blaster bolts drop most targets, armored or not, in a single shot. Setting aside the convenience of storytelling as a reason, we could also presume that even though a armored target may be knocked down/out, it's possible they suffered less injury then they would have if unarmored. It's also possible that the disabling energy of the "stun setting" may still be incorporated into a lethal shot, making even a wounding shot potentially disabling. Of course, I don't claim any of my conjecture to be supported by source material, current canon or otherwise, though as we've seen, anything can be open to retcon. If I ever got to chat with Favreu or Filoni for an evening, who knows what might become canon about Wookie cannon?
well bowcasters have solid slugs that are then coated or something similar by those orbs on the arms of the bow, you see the same plasma charging implements throughout wookie small arms
4:38 regarding why Chewie would use the AT-ST at the battle of Endor: 1.) yes the bowcaster is a powerful small-arm, but it probably cannot reliably penetrate AT-ST armour. It is not equivalent to an actual tank cannon in SW. So Chewie probably needed an AT-ST in order to destroy the other AT-ST's. 2.) the armour protection afforded by the AT-ST deters small-arms fire and protects Chewie from infantry. Otherwise he''s just another solider on the ground. 3.) the rate of fire / sustainable fire presented by the AT-ST may be greater than the bowcaster 4.) the element of surprise = flanking and taking out the other unsuspecting Imperial AT-ST before dominating the infantry, and essentially turning the tide of the battle. 5.) using the AT-ST to lure out remaining Imperial troops into an ambush, oppening the bunker door. 6.) onboard sensors / communications may have provided Chewie with more tactical awareness, alerting him to the presence of enemy units.
Well, in Star Wars blasters have the option of adjusting the power of their blaster bolts. So if I had to guess I’d say chewie likes to play around with the power settings of his bowcaster.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that blasters in Star Wars are some of the most powerful hand weapons in mainline sci-fi franchises and there’s numerous examples that indicate that.
Lets be honest Chewie just wanted an excuse to drive a chicken walker.
Can you imagine the kill in Fallout VATS?
@Jo Xiang try an atat
I could find a way to make it stronger
Who wouldn't lol.
Just happened
Assuming Starkiller Base has a g of -9.8m/s^2
What was Ilum's gravity like?
WesMordine it just says “gravity standard” in the wookiepedia
If it didn't and the difference was appreciable then you would notice it by the movements of the characters
@@perreterecon Which is weird because Illum/starkiller is freakin tiny. 660km across or something like that.
Even if Illum had 1G, the First Order excavating so much of it's mass to build Starkiller probably lessened it's gravitational pull as well.
The bowcaster has many different levels of power, it can be “charged” for superior power.
It works like a sniper weapon in some cases
Depends on models, the wookie produce many variants of bowcaster, and chewie modified his multiple ones, but generally, we see in ROTS that a bowcaster can damage a snail droid, a medium vehicle, so yeah, bowcasters are no joke
Have you ever tried these things in the Jedi Knight games? In Jedi Academy it has two modes: a bouncy shot and a charged shot. The bouncy shot ricochets around off of surfaces and deals a good amount of damage. The charged shot can fire a wide spread of low power bolts when uncharged, sorta like a semi-auto shotgun, or when charged fires one extremely high power shot, which if used point-blank sends the target flying, like ridiculously fast... You won't get it until you see it happen, it's hilarious.
Also, lore-wise, bowcasters actually use a solid projectile encased in a shell of plasma, which makes it stupidly powerful, as not only does it have high stopping power, but since it uses solid projectiles, it can actually penetrate energy shields. Not even mentioning the possibilities added by having a solid projectile: you could add poisonous darts, explosives, toxic gas, and other stuff inside the projectile for additional utility...
Yup. I immediately remembered using the bowcaster in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, where you can charge it for extra damage by holding the trigger down. This makes it an incredibly versatile weapon, able to function as an infantry rifle, sniper, or even a light artillery or anti-tank sort of weapon. Conceivably, charging your shots for extra power would come at the cost of increased battery usage, meaning you'd get less shots per battery the more often you used the overcharge feature.
And it different cewies one is from a stormtrooper plaster he just modified it to look like one form his home plant the ones from home was way way more powerful
If I recall right. Written in the rules of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. The Wookie Bowcaster is able to either fire high powered Blaster Bolts or real physical Bolts that can vary in different modes. Like the typical bolt that stops a target quietly or a bolt that can punch through armor or a bolt that can set troopers on fire.
Also, the Bowcaster is highly custom to the Wookie that made it. As you can see with Chewie's Bowcaster. Its base is an E-11 Blaster Rifle. Yet it is modified to fire different types of effects. Even going full-auto. Which is not that effective at launching a poor trooper through ten decks. Yet still drop a group.
Still, never argue with a Wookie. Let them win. Or they will rip your arms off and beat you with them.
Can you imagine the look on some random Starkiller janitors face as he sees a Stormtrooper flying dozens of meters through the air?!
though, i _would_ argue that there are two e's in the word.
Wookies have been know to do that sort of thing.
So Chewie set his bowcaster to the weaker fire mode when he shot Kylo Ren.
@@mrchrono5837 Nah. That was Plot Armor working. I mean "The Force" Working.
Chewie definitely upgraded the bowcaster between the films.
And the shot is definitely meant for effect than realism.
In the Original Trilogy, Return of the Jedi, Chewie blows up a whole speeder bike with a single shot from his bowcaster.
@@blastech4095 I think that was due to hitting the engine or something, the bowcaster was definitely powerful in the original trilogy but they seem to have turned it up to 11 in the new one.
Agreed. Just see the Mythbusters myth "Blown Away" for why they did and (sorta) why.
realistically both Chewy and Han should be thrown back as well when they fire the weapon
Oh really!
EC Henry: Why bother with AT-ST when Chewie has the bowcaster
Obi-Wan Kenobi: HIGH GROUND
As for the AT-ST on Endor; never discount the element of surprise and the chaos caused by a rogue walker. Plus, the AT-ST might have had a better rate of fire than the bowcaster.
It's also a walking tank. Specifically small arms fire.
@@Inthatgoodway Or rather a walking IFV
Exactly people forget the point of armor and burst fire potential of the atst
front cannon Or the grenade Launchers
I'd like to point out that this is all assuming earth standard gravity. Starkiller base was built from Ilum, a small planet. It could be possible that the gravitational force was considerably lower than earth explaining some of the distance traveled by the trooper.
Wait. It was Ilum ?
Hum..... Ok ?
Everyone moves like in "normal" gravity, most likely there are placed artificial gravity generators everythere
@@TheKenji2221 Yeah. After the events of Jedi; Fallen Order it was shown to be Ilum.
@@PerfectTyler
Oh.
I haven't finished FO sooooooooo.
Yep.
I guessed it would have been in some bs visual guide or something
@@TheKenji2221 Sorry for the spoiler in that case. Don't worry too much. It's almost not a spoiler. Plenty of people I know who have beaten the game missed it.
This just reinforces an earlier assumption that I made: never piss off a Wookie.
And even an unarmed Wookie can quite literally disarm you - rip your arms off.
*Stormtrooper after hitting the wall for the fiftieth time*: Please... make it stop...
EC Henry: *Scrolls video progress bar with malicious intent*
can i just say i love how you use the term "flight path" for the storm trooper being flung by the bow caster
Stormtroopers getting shot by Chewie's OP Bowcaster is one of my favorite parts in The Force Awakens.
Really liked and enjoyed watching this.
I have a couple suggestions for you Henry:
1) Since you did a video on the Nebulon B and what it looked like in imperial service, can you do one on it’s successor the Nebulon C and what that looked like in New Republic service?
2) Can you also do a video on what the Resistance Bunkerbuster looked like in it’s prime? The front half looks like it’s been stripped.
I like those ideas :)
@@patchworkfellow Thanks
The bunlerbusters carried on the ships?
I love you, man! You literally just used the apparent acceleration of the stunt guy falling back from blaster recoil results in the conclusion that Cherie’s bow caster produces enough ballistic stopping power to launch the stormtrooper into orbit. You are THE MAN, EC Henry
I would love to see that more realistic, extended shot with a Wilhelm Scream dubbed over it...
Possibly the armor redirecting the energy at a downward angle, like the impact flash seems to indicate
That's a really long, complicated route to come up with a simple observation.....
....he dead.
Don't you mean..........
"He's Dead Jim." 😁
The Last Order sith troopers have an underslung 'grenade launcher' based on the bowcaster. So canonically the bowcaster is comparable to a grenade launcher in power.
The production quality for these silly, silly videos is incredible.
You're my new favorite Star Wars channel, I'm actually enjoying something about the sequal trilogy.
Not only did it knock the stormtrooper back a good few meters, the trooper also hit the door with enough force to shatter a part of his plastiod armour.
Maybe Starkiller base has less gravity than Earth. I remember seeing somewhere that it is a really tiny planet, so it would make sense that it has lower gravity. That would explain why the arc that the stormtrooper follows is so straight, he is just falling at a much slower rate. A possible way to test this theory, is by timing Han’s fateful fall down the air shaft.
Though they do have gravity generators as well. Because if they didn't, everyone would be bouncing around like it was the moon.
@@marrqi7wini54 Maybe the gravity generators are worn by the characters. We know that personal shields are a thing. Maybe Gravity field generators are small enough to fit in the heal of a boot.
@Jo Xiang Possibly, but that doesn't really help explain the arc of the unfortunate trooper.
When you were randomly shot by Chewbacca but now you are being used in a highly important physics class
Happy FO Stormtrooper noises
Every star wasrs video EC Henry produces is gold, i love all the ship redesigns too even if I am not into the series the ships comes from
I love videos like this and you're great at narrating them.
Please keep it up!
This channel is so underrated it deserves way more subscribers. All of the videos clearly have a lot of work put into them.
how strong is Kylo Ren if he took a shot from this hand cannon and was fighting moments later
All he did was flinch too no knock back either.... *YEESH*
Stronger than every Jedi Master who died during Order 66.
The same way Maul was able to be cut in half and still crawl his way to a garbage world.
It's possible Chewie was out of Quarrels so he was basically only firing a Blaster Bolt by then after firing so many Blaster-bolt-encased railgun slugs.
@@DIEGhostfish logical
The silliest thing from the new trilogy (even beyond being able to see the starkiller weapons beams and hits from a different planet in a different solar system) is Han appearing to only now having tried chewies bowcaster. He's a bloke, he'd have asked to try it the day after chewie got it.
The editing in this video is on point ! Great work.
You understand math and science better than I ever could, and that helps me better understand the physics in Star Wars
All the more ludicrous that Kylo Ren can take a direct shot to the chest and survive with little injury. Even though we've seen Jedi die to much weaker weapons.
He's discussed in another video that blaster bolts lose energy the farther away it is.
It wasn't to the chest, either.
Also keep in mind Kylo Ren can literally stop blaster bolts mid-air, so one can only assume he used the force but was simply to slow to react to entirely stop it.
@@austinp.2259 Bowcaster shots are supposed to be a physical projectile with blaster energy surrounding it to burn away some armor. They also sometimes have explosive warheads. Though they CAN still fire just a plain blaster bolt if they run out of quarrels.
Plus he was wearing plot armor
It would make a lot more sense to think of the power of the bowcaster in terms of Joules, not Newtons. Newtons are force, Joules are energy. It's calculated that the storm trooper is accelerated in the time of 1 frame, but we really have no idea exactly how much time the force was applied, only the maximum time.
Transferring the same amount of the kinetic energy (or rather, momentum) in less than "maximum" time then it would actually require more force. And we only have assumptions for the mass of target (stormtrooper), the mass of the projectile (wookiee bolt), and the losses of inelastic collision - so the effects of force (N) are discussed because fewer assumptions need to be made.
The last measurement shown gives an energy ~1/30th that of a modern combat round/kinetic penetrator (APFSDS). Also about 1/6th that of the WWII Sherman's 76.2mm APHECBC M61 round. It is very powerful. It is still on par with what I would call a tank round, and is definitely a howitzer like the man said. Though not a super powerful one as that 76 can only penetrate ~124mm or 4 and 3/4 inches (a lot ik) but doesn't penetrate the troopers armor.
Like how other blasters have different settings and tanks have many different round types, Peter A. Michaelson has mentioned that the bowcaster can be charged for different power outputs! Very cool! In the new movies they fire few shots and very slowly for comedic effect. Definitely allows each shot to use more power w/o reserve.
He's way off in his comparison. A 120mm main gun on an M1 tank fires a shot that produces about 9.5 million lb force -- 200 times that of the calculated bowcaster. Even a standard APC round from the Sherman's 76mm L/52 produces 1,604,935 lb force or 34 times the force of the bowcaster. The bowcaster in actuality is about three times as powerful a modern 50 cal sniper rifle used by the US army. So, yeah, powerful a for a hand held weapon, but not anywhere near that of a tank gun - even a WW2 tank like a Sherman.
@@calessel3139 You're using Force. Did you mean pressure? The projectile is so much smaller pressure is a very relevant factor. I was comparing energy. Energy is the messenger momentum is the message. The problem is that this is not just a kinetic energy penetrator so energy is what should be used then add the benefit of the doubt from the plasma.
No matter which metric is used it is still at least 6 times weaker than either of the rounds were talking about as I said. I agree with you that the bowcaster is quite a ways off from a high velocity AT kinetic penetrator from WWII. Would you mind explaining how you got the force there since acceleration is used. That is not a commonly known metric
@@nicholaspratt8473 I was calculating Kinetic Energy. The round is 8.35 kg and the mv is 1750 mps for the 120mm and 6.8 kg and 800 mps for the 76mm on the sherman.
@@nicholaspratt8473 Just the basic KE = 1/2mv^2. I assumed he was calculating for the same K.E. since his units aren't per area.
@@calessel3139 The units you used are Lb force which is force in ft lbs. and very close to the google search for the M829A3 on Wikipedia.
Great vid!!
I love the references to smash bros and spaceballs.
Henry made a Smash Bros. reference. My life is now complete.
Loved your analysis, your videos are always a treat to watch with all that fancy CGI. :)
.300 Winchester Magnum has an impact energy of around 4000 lbs. Going with the lower estimate on the bowcasters force, that puts it solidly in the realm of a human hunting rifle... which actually wouldn't be all that out of character for a Wookie to carry, now would it?
Yeah, he's way off. A round 120mm main gun on a M1 tank would produce about 9.5 million lb force which is roughly 200 times more force than the Chewies bowcaster-gun. In reality the bow-gun would have about as much power as a single round from a 2cm KwK L/55 as fired from German light armored cars from WW2 -- like the Sdkfz-222 or 234/1.
This is why in RPGs I play a Wookiee mechanic. I can turn a Bowcaster into a weapon of mass destruction.
When you said ludicrous, my first thought was ludicrous speed.
"They're going plaid!"
Fascinating analysis! It’d be fire if you did a similar breakdown of Mando’s disruptor rifle!
I want thrawn's fists analyzed myself
Still if I was a Wookie, I'd carry a MWC-35c "Staccato Lightning" repeating cannon [Baze's mini gun from Rogue One] one handed and use a Gungan force shield in the off hand.
The MWC-35c's power backpack is more like a large fanny pack or a cross chest pack for a Wookie.
_And imagine if it was customised…_
...
_I like this idea_
I personally would always go with a disruptor sniper rifle of some sort, I'm guessing Mando's rifle is a disruptor because it has the same effect as the disruptors in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. 🤔
I like the effect of the disrupt or rifle. Thought it was interesting how it was breach loaded like the guns US Calvary used after the civil war. Though, why not make it with a magazine? To get a much higher rate of fire…. Still, it’s a really cool limitation on the weapon.
YES!! In the next SW movie we need to see a Wookie with either a MWC-35C or a rapid-fire blater canon. (Fired one handed of course).
*There was a Republic Commando that had one of these, just don't know the model name. As seen in that cutscene with the smuggler from a KOTOR game awhile back. Never played it so don't have much info on it.
Your videos are so well made bro, keep going 😍👌
4:37 I mean, an AT-ST could probably shrug off a shell from a modern tank, so the bowcaster might not actually be that effective. In the Mandalorian, Mando says that he's seen a single AT-ST take out an entire company of soldiers, so I'm inclined to believe that it does take an AT-ST to break an AT-ST.
But falling logs tho
I'd like to point out that the bowcaster isn't some magic space tech, it's a magnetic accelerator weapon. People have built similar devices in their garage, though nowhere near as powerful.
4:51 "This sort of power comes modifications between the two films." Or more likely it comes from comedic effect
Now that you have analyzed the strength of chewie's bowcaster, I wonder how hard Thrawn would hit.
Last I knew you had 5k subscribers. Congrats on the climb up
Just a thought, what is the gravity of Starkiller base? That would affect the arc of the fall after the blast, and in "Standard Gravity" aboard the ship (at 4:35) we do see a more realistic arc.
It's a great day when an EC Henry video drops! Great vid! TH-cam guidelines and copyrights and what not suck!
Chewie punch hard, his weapon is a flying lessons teacher, me laughting so hard then i broke my ribs.
fun with physics - My High School Physics teacher would have loved this - thanks for the memories
I'm more keen on the idea that the bowcaster hit with the force of a car-crash instead of a tank gun, if only for continuity purposes. If it where THAT powerful it would be tearing walls and ground apart near the impact point. And since the bowcaster is supposed to fire a plasma bolt, it's already impressive that it would knock down someone like that in the first place.
Since your into analysing the physics … what is the *firepower increase* of a _Xyston compared to a Imperial 1 ISD_ once you take into account the 50% size increase?
And what if this level of firepower upgrade was applied to other ships? … …
The Xyston technology was reverse engineered and went mainstream (there were a LOT of random ships from across the galaxy around to examine and salvage after the battle).
Apply the figures to other iconic ships, maybe a A-Wing can now take down a SSD bridge without having to ram?
CR-90's that can one shot a ISD?
X-Wings? And what if the Millennium Falcon had a mini Xyston gun fitted?
Still the most interesting figures are if it's scaled down to Xyston hand weapons.
Forget Chewies Bowcaster, it no longer matters if Han shot first or not, because the collateral damage of either Solo's or Greedo's shot would take out the Cantina and a fair part of Mos Esly as well.
I second this.
Perhaps the trajectory of the trooper's body is appropriate for the gravitational force of Star Killer base. The gravity could very easily be less than Earth standard.
Maybe that shot that propelled the Stormtrooper to the door was a power shot.
I always assumed that this shot was on one of the higher power settings and the pirate shot (aboard Han & Chewie's freighter) was a lesser one. Especially since they were insidr the ship in space. Wouldn't want a stray shot going through thr hull or anything, now would he?
@@earlware4322 Exactly. A stray shot at full power could blow a hole and suck them all out into outer space, and unlike the Stormtroopers, they don't have suits that can survive in a vacuum.
The knock back may also be due to the nature of the armor, which dispersed damage and incapacitated the trooper (assuming the first order armor is close enough to Imperial storm trooper armor). So instead of the blast going with enough force to puncture, the force is instead dispersed leading to him flying.
This is more physics than I ever learned in school
I’m not gonna lie I really was waiting for you to release a new video
While the general idea of this is correct (the trooper's flight path isn't realistic), there's a bit of a math issue - we shouldn't be discussing this in terms of force, but rather impulse. Any time there's a collision between two bodies, there's going to be a massive force for a miniscule time. It's a bit arbitrary to say that the trooper was accelerated over 1/24 of a second - why not assume he was accelerated to full speed in a tenth of a frame (1/240 of a second), but at ten times the force? Since we're discussing a single impact, rather than a continuous thrust, what we really care about in this instance is the impulse, which is the total change in velocity, disregarding the time it takes to get there (it's the product of acceleration and time, which equals velocity). Assuming 7.5 m/s impulse and a 93.27 kg trooper, the bolt imparts a momentum (mass times velocity) of almost exactly 700 kg m s. The kinetic energy (mass times velocity squared) imparted is at least 5250 J. I say at least because in most weapons, a significant portion of the kinetic energy is dissipated as impact damage. The kinetic energy of the trooper's knock back is only about as much as three times the muzzle energy of some Colt .45 ammunition (1600 J). So why don't you get thrown across the room if you get hit by a bullet? Look at the formulas for momentum versus kinetic energy - velocity has much more effect on kinetic energy. A bullet is a low mass object traveling at high velocity, so it carries low momentum but can cause significant damage. Blaster bolts travel about as fast as a major league baseball. This means for a bolt traveling slow enough that we can see it for two frames to throw a trooper that fast, it must be pretty darn massive! It looks like it takes between one and two frames (let's say one) to cross the roughly two meters we can see it for. That's 24 meters per second - that bowcaster bolt must weigh almost 30 kg!
Aside from physics, there is a distinct difference between a solid metal slug & a bolt of heated plasma that is magnetically contained like a Molotov Cocktail of sorts…
I freakin love your channel
That bow caster would have the potential to blow off the arms and legs of the armored stormtrooper.
Actually, you can explain the length of the trooper flying backwards a different way, the planet starkiller base is made from has different gravity to it. Although, I'm not sure how good of an explanation that is, given that you see a certain someone falling down a large pit really fast in the movie. Also, chewie probably wanted to drive the at-st, there wasn't any significance to it in the battle, other than him taking it for a joyride.
I really hope you're gonna make a video on the La Sirena from Picard once we've seen more of it. I'd like to hear your opinion on it.
Always love the work.
YES! I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE MAKE FUN OF THE SEQUEL TRILOGY!!!! PLEASE KEEP IT UP!!!!
This is all well and good, and I don't doubt your math, but you've overlooked a key fact about Bowcasters; they're not energy weapons, but projectile weapons. They fire metal quarrels via electromagnetism that are encased in plasma and designed to explode on impact. Therefore the 'power' of each shot would be dependent on what kind of explosive each shot is using. This could also explain why Chewie hijacked the AT-ST, as Bowcasters had limited ammunition (6 to 36 shots) per magazine compared to hundred(s) for a blaster. There's a decent chance he was running out of ammo, given he was facing an entire legion of targets.
You're probably overestimating the weight of the armor. That duraplast doesn't weigh very much, and is mostly there to save you from shrapnel and debris. It's not like real body armor that stops bullets and weighs a ton
One detail: Starkiller Base's gravity is lower than Earth's gravity
Han Solo: I like this thing!
I always assumed that this shot was on one of the higher power settings of Chewie's bowcaster and the pirate shot (aboard Han & Chewie's freighter) was on a lesser one. Especially since they were inside the ship, in space. Wouldn't want a stray shot going through thr hull or anything, now would he?
Great video and analysis! I've always known Wookiee's weapons, especially Chewie's bowcaster, were insanely powerful and thus assumed when/if a human ever used one they'd be thrown backwards by the recoil...sounds like a neat idea for another video! 😏
Of course, if the angle of fire was from slightly below, making the vector of force have a vertical component....
as soon as EC said "which gives us the acceleration of 180m/s", I laughed so hard at the absurdity of the number, as it = 648km/h or 402.65mph!
back to watching the vid
330 M/S = SPEED OF SOUND so at half the speed of sound!!!
He meant to say meters per second per second, aka acceleration is the derivative of speed. Not that the trooper was ever moving at that speed, the period of acceleration was just a fraction of a second.
Love your videos! Maybe something that could influence this measurement is the difference in gravity between earth and Starkiller base
What if the bolt (lodged in him) is pushing the trooper along its flight path for a few feet until its energy is lost?
Love the part when he shoots ben
Chewie should have gone for the head.
How come Ben didn’t fly away when he got hit. Even if it wasn’t a direct hit, he should have been spun off down the hole of doom
A P Either plot armor or the Force
That has always annoyed me, but if Kylo can stop Poe’s blaster shot on jakku, than I think he definitely has a solid shot at at least slowing Chewie’s crossbow bolt, which is actually partially made up by a projectile, which in my mind would be easier to stop than just a full-on plasma shot. That being said, the crossbow bolt is still partially plasma, so I think that may be the part that hit kylo, because it definitely looks more like a normal blaster shot that a crossbow shot. Maybe I’m thinking about this too much...
To be fair, He did show a considerable amount of distress after killing his father, so maybe he wasn’t exactly prepared for Chewbacca, who was relatively far from him to fire. Poe however, was relatively close, allowing kylo to probably sense where he was.
It would be hilarious if when you shot someone with a bow caster it "disintegrated" them by just imparting so much kinetic energy they turned to mist
No disintegrations!
That was super awesome.... Love physics! I suck at it, but I love it nonetheless! Great content!
Can you do a video on Turbolasers in the Expanded Universe vs Phasers from Star Trek?
i love how your saying his flight path is flat when you can clearly see his helmet going down at 3:38
Alongside the element of the Asymmetrical warfare of the Ewoks + Rebels vs Imperial garrison forces: The hijacking of the AT-ST was definitely for the element of surprise, rate of fire, and covering ground to reach back to Han Solo. Came to that thought as well due to Chewies life bond with Han, he wanted to make sure to clear a path quick in an armored agile platform to get back to his best friends whom were pinned down until the point of reaching them. Was also good comical relief to get Han to have to go change his pants after the shenanigans of popping up out of the hatch lol!
What if Chewie was holding the bow caster below where it hits the Stormtrooper, having a force act on him going up somewhat
Absolutely love your videos. No notification makes me tap faster
The CGI artist: They told me to make him go boom. I made him go boom. And now this nerd is analyzing everything I do. I didn't get paid enough for this
the assumption that throws a wrench in everything: assuming the sequel trilogy actually paid attention to detail and didnt just think "make boom boom make dude go fast fast"
That being said, another great vid :) thanks
In star wars I never thought of the blasters as lasers. I saw them more as particle cannon type weapons. This explains (well explains better than heat lasers haha) how blasters seem cause kinetic force energy.
star killer base is significantly smaller than earth... meaning that the acceleration due to gravity would be much less
still cool though
Its also possible that the trooper was impacted below their center of mass and while it looked like their trajectory was straight back initially it actually had a bit of initial lift which you do not see because the trooper is tumbling
I think the disparity between the trooper's knockback and that of most other targets is the result of armor, at least presuming the Stormtrooper armor to have real function beyond being a costume that tells you their faction.
I also like to view the Bowcaster as not a typical blaster, but rather a rail gun of sorts, the spheres on the ends of the bow being the housing for a magnetic propulsion system driving a physical projectile, which looks like a blaster bolt due to burn off of an outer layer of protective coating... Teflon tracer, if you will. The projectile is actually much faster than the burnoff however, with the burning particles following in it's wake, but arriving at the target much slower, even though it's difficult to appreciate in the fraction of a second it takes.
If you combine this theory with the concept that Stormtrooper armor (at least First Order era) is designed to be more protective against higher velocity projectiles, then unprotected targets would lose most of that knockback due to penetration.
Throughout all eras of Star Wars, we still see most blaster bolts drop most targets, armored or not, in a single shot. Setting aside the convenience of storytelling as a reason, we could also presume that even though a armored target may be knocked down/out, it's possible they suffered less injury then they would have if unarmored. It's also possible that the disabling energy of the "stun setting" may still be incorporated into a lethal shot, making even a wounding shot potentially disabling.
Of course, I don't claim any of my conjecture to be supported by source material, current canon or otherwise, though as we've seen, anything can be open to retcon. If I ever got to chat with Favreu or Filoni for an evening, who knows what might become canon about Wookie cannon?
well bowcasters have solid slugs that are then coated or something similar by those orbs on the arms of the bow, you see the same plasma charging implements throughout wookie small arms
Brilliant! This is the kind of geek thinking I grew up with. *happy*
Theory: the bow caster has two modes, the realistic one where you only would go back a few yards, and the secondary is the one he used in this scene
I just love the fact that if that was accurate the trooper would just be punted into oblivion
Now _that's_ some Unlimited Power.
4:38 regarding why Chewie would use the AT-ST at the battle of Endor:
1.) yes the bowcaster is a powerful small-arm, but it probably cannot reliably penetrate AT-ST armour. It is not equivalent to an actual tank cannon in SW. So Chewie probably needed an AT-ST in order to destroy the other AT-ST's.
2.) the armour protection afforded by the AT-ST deters small-arms fire and protects Chewie from infantry. Otherwise he''s just another solider on the ground.
3.) the rate of fire / sustainable fire presented by the AT-ST may be greater than the bowcaster
4.) the element of surprise = flanking and taking out the other unsuspecting Imperial AT-ST before dominating the infantry, and essentially turning the tide of the battle.
5.) using the AT-ST to lure out remaining Imperial troops into an ambush, oppening the bunker door.
6.) onboard sensors / communications may have provided Chewie with more tactical awareness, alerting him to the presence of enemy units.
7.) Chewie really wanted to ride that damn thing after bearing witness to it's capabilities in the past
Captain Phasma said that even a wookie couldn't break stormtrooper armor so maybe that's what prevented him from disintegrating.
Well, in Star Wars blasters have the option of adjusting the power of their blaster bolts. So if I had to guess I’d say chewie likes to play around with the power settings of his bowcaster.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that blasters in Star Wars are some of the most powerful hand weapons in mainline sci-fi franchises and there’s numerous examples that indicate that.
I’d suggest visiting blas tech channel.
Disney; they modified the power because; you know, Disney. I don't remember it being close to that potent in the original films.