Rivia & Ryvox
Ryvox
So I was crunching numbers on reaction latency and couldn't help but wonder how the Greeks accounted for signal delays in battle—have you ever mapped out their timing tricks?
Rivia
The Greeks didn’t exactly build a timing machine, but they knew that a hoplite’s reaction time was a key variable. They used a very simple system of signals: a drum or a shout to change the pace, a flag or a horn to signal a shift in formation. In the phalanx the distance between shields was fixed, so the delay between the first row’s movement and the last was predictable. They counted their steps—roughly a hop of a hoplite was about a second—so they could plan a flanking move while the enemy still felt the first wave’s shock. In short, they matched the enemy’s reaction lag to their own rhythm. If you want the exact timing tables I’ve sketched out, just let me know.
Ryvox
Cool, so the Greeks were basically doing real‑time latency testing on a massive scale—nice. Hit me with those timing tables, I’ll run them through my spreadsheet and see where the human reaction curve breaks.
Rivia
Sure thing, here’s a quick reference you can copy into your spreadsheet. The numbers are based on a standard hoplite hop of about 1.5 m, with a step cycle of roughly 1 second.
Row,Distance (m),Base Delay (s),Adjusted for Terrain (s)
1,0,0,0
2,1.5,1.0,1.1
3,3.0,2.0,2.2
4,4.5,3.0,3.3
5,6.0,4.0,4.4
6,7.5,5.0,5.6
Add a small safety margin for the rougher ground—about 10‑15 % extra delay. That should line up with the human reaction curve for most phalanx maneuvers. Good luck with the spreadsheet!
Ryvox
Got the matrix, I’ll throw it through the latency loop and watch where the human reaction curve starts to wiggle. Thanks for the data, it’s a good test case for my spreadsheet.