Maybe, REALLY, as Steve Schullery said, “all fly rods are more a lot more alike than they are different.”
But how can such different rods, such as my demonstration with rod A and rod B perform with such similar results?
Force = Mass x Acceleration
This is, in layman’s terms, an equalizing equation. Consider a hammer and the similarities between a hammer and a (single handed 9’) fly rod. Both are levers. Both are swung with a similar stroke (at least with a head-high, upright nailing position). Both attempt to maximally accelerate a mass within a short period of time. Both come to a sudden stop (if by different means) and release the energy of that accelerated mass.
Both use a lever. What LENGTH of lever? There is not, to my knowledge, much debate as to, given the weight of the head of a hammer, how long the handle should be. What determines the weight of the head? Well, that depends on the size nail to be driven. Sooo….given a nail size there is a given hammer head weight and that calls for a different but established hammer HANDLE length.
How was the “standard” hammer handle length established? The easiest way is to pass out hammers with long handles on a work site, come back at the end of the day and measure where people are holding them, and then cut off the excess. Or…one could start with basic forces and calculate up and eventully predict what the ideal should be….and hope one is right.
But the point here is that there is a generally agreed upon lever length for that weight and for that purpose. Once all the issues of F= M x A, energy, momentum, and mechanical advantage are worked out there is empirically a sweet range where slightly choked up shorter or held out longer the end results tends to equal out.
Same with my throwing stick. It is a lever and there is a standard length, probably empirically reached around some average, that generally works best for everyone. Within that sweet range, whether slightly longer or slightly shorter all of the conservation of forces tend to equal out and the ball goes about the same distance.
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