Pinned post for Q&A :)

"Genetic hybridization with a hammerhead shark is... frowned upon."

Someone needs to make a compilation of these jokes, they are gold!

I made my nephew an optical rangefinder as a way of teaching him trigonometry. We pretended we were working out the range of enemy ships, he still thinks it was the best maths lessons he ever had.

Before this video: how did these navy guys manage to shoot at eachother so much and miss so often?
After this video: wow it's a miracle any shell ever hit the target

This is why the FCO says, "I have a firing solution." They were literally solving a trigonometry problem. Those Ford Mk.I computers are a pure marvel of mechanical engineering. Just absolutely amazing.

As an old fire controlman, I enjoyed the heck out of this. The picture of the switchboard brought back memories: we had motorized switches, and when they rolled, it was like have a couple dozen pistols firing right next to you. You brought out the complexities of the fire control solution really well, and with more humor than my instructors in school. Except for Petty Officer Wilson. He always liked to say that us wimps with the new-fangled digital computers were slaves to the AC. His Mk 56 analog computer could take the heat. So it got a little warm; his accuracy went up!

Optically: I see that we'll definitely hit that target
Depression: We'll never hit that target

Flat Earthers: The Earth is flat
Every artilleryman: [Laughs in mathematics]

"A ship always undergoes a certain degree of roll"

image of half sinking ship

never change Drachinifel, never change

This talk is one of the best discussions on this topic I have ever heard.  After 41 years of work on such systems for the US Navy (both guided missile and gun systems), I have A LOT of knowledge about this and this instructor HAS NAILED IT!!!  This instructor is WAY, WAY, WAY better at such discussions than most other people I have ever heard.  THANK YOU, DRACHINIFEL!!!!!!!

I was so excited to see a photo from the film "Master and Commander" one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. The depiction of naval battles in that film were so authentic. Love it.

"I took ballistics in school. Fascinating subject. Things go up, things go down!"

You gotta feel sorry for the Italian designer who jammed the Littorio full of the best rangefinding and fire control equipment he could build, only for the shell manufacturers to render all his work pointless.
Teamwork: Ensuring your hard work can always be ruined by someone else.

"Humans don't react very well to heavy shell fire"
Drachinifel, 2020

Littorio: you are talking real punk for someone at 17348.3592 yards from here

Another thing the FCS needs to take into account is the wear of the barrels overall and number of rounds fired in a particular engagement, as both of these will also affect the ballistic trajectories of the rounds.

Another thing that can also be important to consider is masking data, which is the location and height of external objects (such as buildings and trees) relative to your position as well as the target. Obviously not as much of a concern in the open ocean (except in fleet actions because friendly fire is generally disliked), but is also important to consider when engaging in shore and coastal bombardments.

This video is good but really just scratches the surface on many of the concepts and factors that go into artillery ranging and ballistics. There is a lot to consider and one can spend literal weeks just learning the concepts.

All I could think about when seeing the early rangefinders was "frickin Hammerhead sharks with frickin laser beams"

Before your channel, I had no idea how sophisticated these systems were.

"Genetic hybridization was frowned upon"
Drachinifel, 2020

I have researched this topic for the last 30 years; I even got special access to the research library at the Mariner's Museum. This video states the problems of fire control very well. That inventive men found ways to put their mathematical models to use on actual ships, using trains of gears and mechanical whatnot, is amazing. The problem is so much easier today, with digital computation. Of course, naval artillery is almost an afterthought; missiles are the thing.