Re: [LoGH] LoGH physics
Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Mon, 16 Oct 2000 10:31:44 -0500 (CDT)
On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Justin Ho wrote:
> I took the 120 MW rating to mean the maximum amount delivered to a target,
> decreasing as beam spreads over distance.
> Can't that be used to give the MJ delivered to a unit area per second in
> order to get an estimate of how effectively something is punching through
> the armor?
Oh, yes, that's exactly what it is used for. But the point that I was
making is: "How can you describe the particle beam in watts?" With a
particle beam you can describe the mean energy of the particles in the
beam and their density, but this doesn't translate into watts. For
"effectiveness of punching through" estimates then you would also need
to know what percentage of its energy the beam particles transfer to
the target material and by what interaction to work out what effect the
beam would actually have. Describing the particle beam in terms of
watts is a bit like decribing the flow rate of water through your pipes
in terms of volts.
==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos(at)sedl.org
