Khross wrote:
Diamondeye wrote:
Corolinth wrote:
The cannon is still in use by the United States military, we just changed the shape of the ball.
Objects called "cannons" are still in use by the military, but they have changed a hell of a lot more than the shape of the ball.
Not really ...
Mass of dense metal plus directed explosive charge results in a projectile flying out of a giant metal tube, which may or may not be rifled depending on size.
Yes, really - and since my original MOS happens to be 13A, Field Artillery Officer, I'm quite well versed on this, thanks.
Addition of rifling is a change in itself from the original "cannonball" especially since "balls" can't be rifled.
The addition of recoil-absorbtion systems was a revolutionary change.
Cannons became self-propelled and could be reliably emplaced at a known point on the ground. This involved a change to the cannon itself; in addition to the recoil system it needed to be able to have a stable aiming telescope regardless of being self-propelled in order to accurately lay the gun. This allowed for indirect lay, and indirect fire.
Various forms of self-loading auto-cannon were developed
Propellents of known qualities were developed, allowing much more accurate predictions of muzzle velocity and therefore more accurate indirect fire.
The contents of the "cannonball" changed; instead of just being iron shot we had canister, high explosive, white phosphorous, HC smoke canister, WP felt smoke rounds, illumination flares, APICM submunitions, DPICM submunitions, BBDPICM, rocket-assisted projectiles, of course chemical and nuclear rounds, and such gems as Copperhead and EXCALIBUR so the idea that the only thing that changed is the
shape of the projectile is preposterous on the face of it.
Here's a lesson from the first day of Field Artillery OBC:
The 5 elements of accurate and predicted fire are:
1) accurate target location and size (size does matter)
2) accurate firing unit location
3) accurate weapon and ammunition information
4) accurate meteorological information (which really means environmental information, not merely the weather)
5) accurate computational procedures (or, accurate ballistic equation if you prefer)
At the time cannon "balls" were in use, none of those could be achieved. A cannon was an oversized musket. Enormous changes have taken place. Coro is right that they are still in use, but they bear about as much resemblance to a cannon launching a cannonball as the 747 does to the Wright Brother's Flyer. Saying the only change is the shape of the ball would be like claiming the only thing that changed about a 747 was the length of he fuselage.
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