# Why do AT-ATs trip so easily? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264 "2004-10-08T20:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/61 "2004-10-12T23:38:29Z")
> [@Jayrot](#): > > You also, perhaps, would have thought that a stormtrooper couldn’t be neutralized with rocks and sticks…what with that tough armor and all. I swear in that scene, one of the Stormtrooper’s gets his armor pierced by an Ewok arrow. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/62 "2004-10-13T00:03:54Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Those damn teddybears are amazing lumberjacks, being able to cut down and make traps out of 150,000 lb trees in a matter of hours. What was that joke about postholes and diggers again? ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/63 "2004-10-13T03:41:20Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > I swear in that scene, one of the Stormtrooper’s gets his armor pierced by an Ewok arrow. Arrows \> Armor. Just ask Henry V about Agincourt. Granted, a yew longbow is a far cry from the Ewoks’ Cub Scout projects, but they’re only having to punch through cheap plastic instead of chain mail and plate. The Endor ground battle looks about right up until after Chewie gets the walker. Imperial infantry have superior training and equipment, but horrible recon and no camoflage to speak of. This makes them easy mob targets when they charge. Likewise, the speeders are fancy-butt motorbikes, knock the driver off with rocks or twine and he’s down for good. But there is no answer to the armor until one is captured and turned on the enemy. Only then do they magically get the felled trees to take down other walkers. I’d clip the double-bonked walker, and the other walker tripping on a log avalanche, but the rest I’d leave as is. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/64 "2004-10-13T05:13:59Z")
Please! I am desperate! Someone, somewhere, somehow tell me why the Imperial Troops wear armor!!! At least tell me in terms of the SW universe and not that it looked cool. I get that it looked cool but since everything else has some odd explanation, why did they wear armor that seems to give them no protection whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Keapon\_Laffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e274bd/32.png) [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/65 "2004-10-13T05:21:15Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Please! I am desperate! Someone, somewhere, somehow tell me why the Imperial Troops wear armor!!! > > At least tell me in terms of the SW universe and not that it looked cool. I get that it looked cool but since everything else has some odd explanation, why did they wear armor that seems to give them no protection whatsoever. Helps them get lucky with the local girls. 😛 I suppose it could be for intimidation, or to identify themselves are part of an elite sharpshooting group. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/66 "2004-10-13T05:21:55Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Please! I am desperate! Someone, somewhere, somehow tell me why the Imperial Troops wear armor!!! [retcon]To hide the fact that they are all clones of the same guy?[/retcon] ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/67 "2004-10-13T06:48:16Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > [retcon]To hide the fact that they are all clones of the same guy?[/retcon] Actually, I always figured it was so Lucas could use the same 20 extras over and over without it standing out. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/68 "2004-10-13T06:55:33Z")
> [@don Jaime](#): > > Arrows \> Armor. Just ask Henry V about Agincourt. Granted, a yew longbow is a far cry from the Ewoks’ Cub Scout projects, but they’re only having to punch through cheap plastic instead of chain mail and plate. > > The Endor ground battle looks about right up until after Chewie gets the walker. Imperial infantry have superior training and equipment, but horrible recon and no camoflage to speak of. This makes them easy mob targets when they charge. Likewise, the speeders are fancy-butt motorbikes, knock the driver off with rocks or twine and he’s down for good. But there is no answer to the armor until one is captured and turned on the enemy. Only then do they magically get the felled trees to take down other walkers. I’d clip the double-bonked walker, and the other walker tripping on a log avalanche, but the rest I’d leave as is. The fact they lost period makes no sense. The ewoks aren’t exactly the Vietcong or the NVA(and even those guys took decades to win). The stormtroopers have laser weapons and mobile armor versus slings and stones and spears. The really sad thing is, in order for the Empire to win this battle, all they have to do is defend the shield bunker. There is no excuse to go trapsing off into the forest looking for the rebels. Set up some recon posts(WITH RADIOS!) a couple klicks out all around the bunker. The front door is probably well guarded, but since there’s a back door, then have a couple platoons of imperials with mounted weapons entrenched in strong points all around the back door, just behind a 300 meter wide semicircle on the backside of the bunker, that has been completely cleared off of trees and bushes and anything that could possibly cover. US Marines would have a tough time getting through something like that without access to air or artillery support. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/69 "2004-10-13T07:06:15Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#): > > A driod is a technological spirit that lives in binary trees in cyberspace. If you call a destructor function on the binary tree, the driod dies also. Brilliant! (And they would fit in so nicely with daemons, sprites, and pixels.) ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/70 "2004-10-13T11:02:19Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Please! I am desperate! Someone, somewhere, somehow tell me why the Imperial Troops wear armor!!! > > At least tell me in terms of the SW universe and not that it looked cool. I get that it looked cool but since everything else has some odd explanation, why did they wear armor that seems to give them no protection whatsoever. I mentioned earlier, entirely without a cite, that I’d heard the armour didn’t give ZERO protection, just that it only deflected shots coming at an angle, rather than a direct hit. Still no cite. And the more I think about the concept, the less it seems to mean. EVERYTHING hits at SOME angle, right? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/71 "2004-10-13T13:14:12Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > [retcon]To hide the fact that they are all clones of the same guy?[/retcon] While having seen the three original movies, I’ve never seen the two new ones so anything from the new movies is lost on me. What is retcon? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/72 "2004-10-13T13:22:31Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > I just saw this last night and it sure looked like the gunner had a weapon. > > I could be wrong. Well, he’s manning a gun with a trigger. But it’s not a blaster weapon, AFAIK, it’s just the harpoon gun that launches the tow cable. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/73 "2004-10-13T15:00:40Z")
Well, it should be fairly obvious why the speeders have a guy facing backward, manning the tow cable. It’s so he can keep an eye on the water-skiers! Duh! ---
**Author:** ![MMI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@MMI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMI)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/74 "2004-10-13T15:12:33Z")
Well, ya see, the snowspeeder was made from a heavily modified Y-Wing, with all the interstellar/space crap removed and replaced with the snow-speeder type stuff. The Y-wing is much more heavily armed and requires a gunner to man all of the extra guns, ion cannons, torps and what not. Now, strictly speaking, there is no _need_ for a second guy in the snowspeeder, but the Y-wing gunner’s union (starfighters local 732) has a fair amount of clout within the rebel alliance, especially after the Death Star success. There is no way the union would let the alliance put all of the back-seat gunners out of work, especially the way the y-wings fought so poorly and died so vailiantly at Yavin. So a compromise was reached where in the snowspeeders would have two seats and every pilot’s ne’er-do-well brother-in-law gets a cushy job, mostly harmless in the back seat. To give an official sounding reason for the back-seaters, the harpoon gun was installed (cause hey, why not? ) Only later did the seridipitous nature of this plan come to fruition. With respect to stormtroopers, they are just camera-shy. They get all flustered by the attention and their aim goes all to heck. Especially working under such a blatantly pro-alliance director as Lucas. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/75 "2004-10-13T15:19:52Z")
> [@](#): > > I swear in that scene, one of the Stormtrooper’s gets his armor pierced by an Ewok arrow. You did see it but in later versions Lucas replaces the arrow with a pretty flower. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/76 "2004-10-13T17:25:16Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > You did see it but in later versions Lucas replaces the arrow with a pretty flower. And isn’t the music during the Ewok Celebration “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/77 "2004-10-13T18:37:28Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > I always wondered if the drivers got bored and loaded on Saturday nights and made them dance to The Baby Elephant Walk. DOO do do do doodoo doodoo DOO DOO! Barking laughter in the middle of the office generally gives away the fact that you’re not really working. Thanks **Middlecase** … ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/78 "2004-10-13T19:19:41Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > At least tell me in terms of the SW universe and not that it looked cool. I get that it looked cool but since everything else has some odd explanation, why did they wear armor that seems to give them no protection whatsoever. Well it probably does provide some protection, even if it’s just against shrapnel. And as far as I’m concerned, some is better than none when someone is shooting at me. American soldiers wear body armor but they aren’t invincible in it. It makes since if you play the new SW: Battlefront game. They have invincible “heros” like Luke or Darth Vader that just appear, can’t be killed and just go around housing people. Kind of like the movies. There’s also a blaster in the snowspeeders rear gun. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/79 "2004-10-13T20:27:08Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > … logs of the same density as red oak, 14.8 lbs per board-foot), we can determine that each log would end up weighing about 150,000 lbs. Might want to check your reference. That makes red oak more than three times as dense as water\*. Seeing as oak makes such excellent pirate ships (though strictly speaking _white_ oak is preferred by 4 out of 5 buccaneers) I don’t think that is the case. I’m sure my mission style sofa will float as well as the _Raging Queen_. I could only find one reference for density of red oak. It wasn’t clear but seemed to give specific gravity of 0.63 which makes a hell of a lot more sense, putting it at about 3lbs per board foot with your logs weighing in at around 30,000lbs each. At that I think you are grossly overestimating the size of the logs but I haven’t done the photometrics to back up that claim. Even if we’re picking apart fairy tales we should still have out numbers straight. \*7.6lbs per gallon, close enough for Govt. work. 231 cubic inches per gallon. 144 cubic inches for a nominal board foot. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264/80 "2004-10-13T20:40:02Z")
> [@Ross](#): > > Still no cite. And the more I think about the concept, the less it seems to mean. EVERYTHING hits at SOME angle, right? That actually makes lots of sense. With the right ammunition even heavy armor can be pierced by the right bullet at a 90º angle to the surface, that is perpendicular. At modest ranges a tiny bullet weighting an eighth of an ounce can punch right through a 3/8" steel plate. At a shallow angle, a glancing strike, even non armor will deflect bullets. Modern car windshields are slanted so much they often deflect pistol bullets and even rifle bullets will easily bounce off water. As for stom trooper armor it appears that it can only be penetrated under two very specific circumtances: when the incident angle is 450º or when the plot requires it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-at-ats-trip-so-easily/268264.md?page=5)