From:	Ojaste,James [NCR] James.Ojaste@**.GC.CA
Subject:	armor
Date:	Mon, 8 Feb 1999 12:47:49 -0500

Slipspeed wrote:
> >|How much ballistic armor dose a pillow give?
[snip]
> If he meant impact armour, then I suppose one is fair, perhaps even two or
> three, depending on the GM. Assuming the pillow was what was aimed at.
>
> Hmm, make that one, full stop. I remember in high school, during a
> physics
> class on force. My physics teacher (black belt third dan in tai kwon do)
> called in a student teacher, and told him to hold a phone book against his
> chest. He then punched the phone book. The teacher came to school the
> next
> day with a bruise so big and purple it wasn't funny. Depending on the
> pillow, it might work worse or better than the phone book. :)
>
The phonebook is reasonably solid and thus will transmit the force of
the blow well (although it *will* distribute the force over a larger
area). The pillow will compress a lot and will thus absorb a quantity
of the energy. The pillow would probably give an impact of 1 or 2,
depending on the pillow and the weapon used (sword? impact=0).

James Ojaste