What if two swallows carried it together

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Of course this is highly unlikely to ever happen. This definition applies best to planes. When dealing with animals is a little different. To find the airspeed velocity of a bird, one must calculate the Strouhal number. The Strouhal number is usually used in the calculation of speed of fish in water.

In that case, it is the ratio of frequency of the tail moving and the forward speed of the animal. A man named Graham K. Taylor discovered the same principle can be applied to birds and other animals that can fly. The frequency is the number of times the bird beats its wings a second and the amplitude is the distance the wing travels in one beat. To get an approximate airspeed, Taylor said to invert the midpoint Strouhal number which is 0.

This means that the airspeed about 3 times the product of the frequency and the amplitude. There is a very detailed blog on style. But, the real question is not about swallows at all. King Arthur in the movie had two coconut shells that he banged together to simulate the sound of a horse galloping.

No, really, and Monty Python may well have known it. While parts of it were added more recently, the original elements are medieval. This is the only medieval English coconut cup currently displayed online, and it shows how the shell was strapped into a goblet form using a harness of silver or gold. The English continued to make coconut cups after the medieval period—in the sixteenth century, seventeenth century, and beyond.

They were numerous enough that by the fifteenth century, individual households might boast several coconut cups. One humble esquire highlighted the prestige of these cups when he willed his coconut cup to his heir in tail male, just like the Bennett estate in Pride and Prejudice or the Crawley estate in Downton Abbey. But why make luxurious golden goblets out of coconuts? In the Middle Ages, coconut palms were not yet as widespread as they are today.

Coconuts grew in their native Maldives, in India, and perhaps parts of western Africa and the Middle East. They were also growing in western Central America, but had gotten there on their own, crossing the pacific like small, tasty boats without a swallow in sight. Coconuts formed a regular part of commerce across the Indian Ocean from Roman times, and this trade appears to have continued with little disruption straight through the ancient and medieval periods.

They were imported as medicine. Beginning regularly once again in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, medicinal coconuts arrived in England. This time, they were packed on Venetian galleys along with luxuries from silks to sugar, and next to exotic pets like monkeys and parrots. In turn, the Venetians got the coconuts from Alexandria and from the same trade networks that the coconuts had been part of for millennia.

Namely, some of the larger raptors, like eagles. Again, there is some dispute among experts as to the maximum carrying capacity of eagles in flight. Clearly, we need to pump some funding into bird weight-lifting research.

It's common for these predatory birds to capture and carry prey weighing in at 1 to 2 pounds, though there have been instances of carrying prey upward of 5 or 6 pounds over distances of at least a mile. Suffice it to say, a single eagle could pretty easily carry a coconut without breaking too much of a sweat only an expression, birds don't actually sweat , and a couple of eagles with some vine and a little gumption could carry a whole group of coconuts.

Fun fact: A group of eagles is called a convocation. A group of coconuts is called Bonus fact: The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly Put that in your gee-whiz file in case you ever find yourself on the Bridge of Death. It's clear that Arthur's heart isn't in the fight. In actuality, he wants the Black Knight to join him on his quest. When the knight refuses and makes Arthur sad , Arthur hopes only to pass in peace, but it isn't to be. An epic duel ensues. And the Black Knight is shortly relieved of each of his limbs.

What's curious is the Black Knight doesn't seem entirely bothered by the injuries, claiming them to be mere flesh wounds and announcing to all who will hear that he has, in fact, had worse.

He's so untroubled by the lack of extremities he promises to bite Arthur's legs off if only he'll come back and get what's coming to him. There's no question that the Black Knight's injuries are severe and will, should he recover, have an everlasting impact on his life. But, would he recover? Given the medical expertise available at the time, the odds of survival, as compared to similar trauma today, are Such traumatic injuries, sustained in such a short period of time, would likely throw the patient into a state of shock, which might explain the Black Knight's peculiar response to his wounds.

The most immediate concern is, of course, blood loss. Though, luckily for the faceless warrior, it is sometimes the case that complete amputations, like the one seen in the aforementioned scene, may not actually bleed all that much.

In response to the trauma, the affected blood vessels may spasm, retract into the body, and shrink, stemming blood flow. Given what we see in the scene, this appears to be the case.

There is an initial spurt of blood, but no continued blood loss. Assuming the Black Knight were able to obtain adequate medical assistance, clean his wounds, and prevent infection, it's possible he might heal and live to fight another day.

We can only hope there is a trained medical professional available so deep in the woods. All of that said, should you find yourself down two arms, and with an opponent willing to call it a day, you should probably take them up on the offer and walk away while you still can.