Argos' Law

Argos' Law will be a new beginning to a slew of posts to come. Stay tuned to see these mixed in with the regular rants. These might be just a little more edgy.

Thanks!
Argos The Dog

The History of Nerf

Parker Brothers originally developed Nerf, beginning with a four-inch (102 mm) polyurethane foam ball. In 1969, Reyn Guyer, a games inventor, came to the company with a volleyball game that was safe for indoor play. After studying the game carefully, Parker Brothers decided to eliminate everything but the foam ball. In 1970, the Nerf ball was introduced as the "world's first official indoor ball". Marketed that one can "Throw it indoors; you can't damage lamps or break windows. You can't hurt babies or old people." The ball filled a strong consumer need and by the year's end more than four million Nerf balls had been sold. The four-inch (102 mm) ball was followed closely by a large version called "Super Nerf Ball". Shortly after, in 1972, a basketball game called "Nerfoop" and the Nerf football joined the family. The football quickly became the most popular Nerf ball.

The company continued to add to the Nerf line until they handed the ball to Kenner Products, a sister company, in 1991, when Hasbro acquired the Nerf line through the acquisition of the Tonka Corporation. Over the years, the company has continued to expand the line, adding new looks to existing products. The current line of Nerf products range from various sport balls, blasters with both dart, rocket, arrow and ball ammunition, and, now, onto even video game accessories.

(Info from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerf)

A Little Something on Darts

The dartboard may have its origins in the cross-section of a tree. An old name for a dartboard is a 'butt', which might imply that the bottoms of wine barrels were the original dartboards; but the word in fact comes from the French word butte, meaning target. In particular, the Yorkshire and Perrigo Manchester Log End boards differ from the standard board in that they have no treble only double and bullseye, The Perrigo Manchester board being of a smaller diameter, with a playing area of only 25 cm across with double and bull areas measuring just 4mm. The London Fives board is another variation. This has only 12 equal segments numbered 20,5,15,10,20,5,15,10,20,5,15,10 with the doubles and triples being a quarter of an inch wide.

There is speculation that the game originated among soldiers throwing short arrows at the bottom of the cask or at the bottom of trunks of trees. As the wood dried, cracks would develop, creating "sections". Soon, regional standards emerged and many woodworkers supplemented bar tabs by fabricating dart boards for the local pubs.

The standard numbering plan with a 20 on top was created in 1896 by a Lancashire^[4] However, a great many other configurations have been used throughout the years and in different geographical locations. Gamlin's layout was devised to penalise inaccuracy. Although this applies to most of the board, the left-hand side (near the 14 section) is preferred by beginners, for its concentration of larger numbers. Mathematically, removing the rotational symmetry by placing the "20" at the top, there are 19!, or 121,645,100,408,832,000 possible dartboards. Many different layouts would penalise a player more than the current setup; however, the current setup actually does the job rather efficiently. There have been several mathematical papers published that consider the "optimal" dartboard. carpenter called Brian Gamlin.

Height and distance

In the standard game, the dartboard is hung so that the bullseye is 5 ft 8 in (or 173 cm) from the floor—eye-level for a six-foot (183 cm) person. The oche (IPA: /'ɒki/)—the line behind which the throwing player must stand—is generally 7 ft 9¼ in (or 237 cm) from the face of the dartboard measured horizontally. This is the recognized world standard as set by the World Dart Federation and is used in most areas.

The London 5 board or narrow 5's board set up is slightly different from the standard board. The height is set at 5 feet 6 inches to the centre of the bull and the oche is at 9 feet from the face of the board.

(Info from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darts and http://www.cyberdarts.com/basics/dartsbasics.html)