Spartan Warfare Essays - Phalanx, Sparta, Macedonian Phalanx

Spartan Warfare In the 7th Century BC a new era of warfare strategy evolved. Before this new strategy, foot soldiers engaged in battle in the form of one mob for an army. Then on the command of their generals they would run at each other and proceed to hack blindly at the enemy in front of them with little or no objective other than to kill him. This proved to be very messy and the victor of battle depended mostly on emotion and size of these mobs. In the name of strategy and organization, the phalanx was developed. A phalanx is simply defined as a line formation with its width significantly larger then its depth. The depth of the phalanx is a variable which some suggest was decided by the army itself rather then by the leaders of the army. The smallest depth appears to have been that of one man deep. However this was a unique occurrence which is widely believed to be fictitious. The largest depth is that of 120 men deep which fielded at one time by the Macedonians. On average, the depth of the pha lanx appears to be about eight men deep. During the time of Alexander the Great, the phalanx was believed to be eight men deep, but some argue that it evolved into a sixteen man deep phalanx. The Spartans purposely varied the depth of their phalanx so as to confuse the enemy about the number of soldiers fielded. The phalanx proved to be a very valuable weapon for the military at that time. Armies that did not adapt to the phalanx formation were quickly slaughtered.

dresden essays

dresden essays It is said that war is inhuman, but I have to disagree. War is vicious, immoral and heartless-true, but if anything it is one of the most human things that exists today. War satisfies a deep primal urge that very few other things can. Battle and fighting in general are very deeply inlaid into the human psyche, the primitive brain holds a certain hunger for the loss of life and pain of others. But modern man is said to have evolved past that. Instilling cutting edge technology to do the dirty deeds of trained madmen, we can sit back, breathe easy, and convince ourselves that we are not deeply relishing this sadistic feast of mortality. The excuses for carnage in 1945 were incendiary bombs. These were bombs filled with some sort of highly combustible chemical, usually napalm. With these, firestorms were invented. Firestorms consist of hundreds of incendiary bombs dropped from planes over a target. After the area catches fire, the air above the bombed area becomes extremely hot and rise s rapidly. Cold air then rushes in at ground level from the outside and people are sucked into the fire. One of the most sadly unknown, yet most deadly of firestorms is Dresden during World War II. The Allies deliberately attacked Dresden in order to break the morale of the Germans. It was claimed that the real reason behind the bombing of Dresden was the destruction of Germans main communications center, but in reality it was a refuge. Dresdens normal population of 650,000 had most likely doubled in the ending months of the war. RAF commanders have said that the bombing was really to trap the German civilians inside, not allowing them to leave the country. Others have said it was to show the Russians how much firepower the British and the U.S. controlled. For whatever reason Dresden was destroyed on February 13th, 1945. 775 Avro Lancasters were sent from the Oboe ground station close behind the front line. 3,300 to ...

Space Age Furniture Company Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Space Age Furniture Company - Assignment Example According to the paper the company incurs a cost of $0.75 per unit per week to hold stock for any subassemblies in stock from one week to another. Hence Space Age Company will incur a total cost of $975 for the six weeks in relation to holding cost. It is clear that due to the high number of subassemblies being produced, there is a demand for part 3079 to be produced in high numbers since it is used to make the subassemblies. However, this can lead to the company incurring overtime costs in order to meet the demand for sub assembles produced in lot sizes of 1000 units. This paper recommends that the lot size of producing the subassemblies should be reduced in order to avoid too much demand for part 3079. This is because it can lead to overtime costs, which in turn can lead to the loss of competent staff. This can be done by reducing the lot size to say 800 units and analysing its effects through Material Requirements Planning. If reducing that number still does not yield better resul ts, the company can consider reducing the number further up to a point where they can sustain the demand for part 3079 that is used to make the subassemblies for the final products. Alternatively, since the machine that makes part 3079 can make as much units as possible, the company can consider employing more staff who can make the part in order to meet the demand for the subassemblies required. This will eliminate overtime costs, stock out costs and motivate the staff who will work the regular 40 hours per week. According to Hanna & Newman, for a company to come up with the best course of action, a cost-benefit analysis must be done in order to choose the one that minimises costs and maximises benefits. In this case, the two recommendations will be analysed. A trade-off is a situation where one gains something at the expense of losing something. That is when one item increases, the other