Before words christened a page, people told stories to each other that they recited to others like gossip that spread from generation to generation. With each generation, such stories echoed into the distance in a never ending game of telephone.

One such is the tale of David and Goliath, which seems to have been embellished with the belief that a deity helped young David. Their battle happened with an army watching. For David, there seemed to have some type of luck involved.

David refused armor in the fight. He found weapons of warfare like spears and swords dumb. He was so tiny that a shield would have been a bad idea. Instead, he used science.

He took with him a sling whose full length was the diameter of a circle. In the battle, David (with a sling) ran up to Goliath, and the giant mocked him. But science is crueler than words.

Folding a stone in the sling, he swung the stone in a circular path to power up the shot as the giant readied a spear to use up close.

David’s sling used centripetal force, and in the hands of a shepherd boy who probably used sling practice as a way to pass the time while alone in a field, he was possibly more accurate than the average solider. The force and mass created a powerful multiplied total coming off the end of the sling.

As the stone hit the air, more was at play than simple centripetal force. The stone he used came from a stream.

With the crushing flow of water smoothing the stone, there would have been little air friction as it found its way to achieve what most boys from this age call a headshot.

The shot would have happened in an instant. The effect of Goliath’s death as dramatic as you would imagine. The giant would have only stood there long enough to try to attack before being killed by a stone that could have flown faster than 100 miles an hour.

At the sight of a tall man slain by a small boy, the enemy army might of imagined an army of slings coming after their heads. That’s when they turned to run away. And that’s all can be said for David. A giant seems deadly to all until someone uses their head.