Re: [LoGH] The Great Debate - Beowulf vs. Werewolf
Josh Yuan (jjyuan@yahoo.com)
Fri, 13 Oct 2000 12:03:26 -0700 (PDT)
For the physics people. How do you accelerate
neutrons? And what is the energy level involve to
accelerate enough mass to form a 120MW beam?
Justin: Doesn't the battleship also carry lasers for
anti-fighter use? You see this during Julian's first
battle where a turret pop out the side of an imperial
crusier.
--- Walter Amos wrote:
> > 2. The neutron cannons given for a standard
> FPA cruiser have a listed
> > power output of 120 MW and a bore diameter of 12.3
> cm. The problem is that
> > from those numbers it seems that the power at its
> listed maximum range of
> > 18 light seconds would be incredibly small.
>
> Why is that? A beam of neutrons would experience
> almost no
> self-interaction causing beam spreading (as is a
> problem with a charged
> particle beam, the like charges repelling one
> another and therefore
> causing the focused beam to disperse). Since it is
> almost impossible
> to make a perfectly coherent particle beam there
> would still be some
> dispersion though, and probably 18 light seconds is
> the range at which
> the spreading would mean that the amount of energy
> delivered per unit
> area at the target is less than that needed to melt
> battleship armor.
>
> > 3. How the hell does a magnetic field deflect
> a stream of uncharged
> > neutrons? The data appears to indicate the
> shields have at least a
> > magnetic field component, and the main cannons are
> most definitely listed
> > as neutron cannons.
>
> This one I can go into in more detail. If I may
> also quote Graeme Lennon's
> response:
>
> > It is perhaps worth noting that a neutron is not
> *really* a particle with
> > no charge at all. It is a group of quarks with
> opposing half-charges that
> > average out to a zero net charge. (Fact)
> > Thus, it stands to reason that at a certain scale
> there is some form of
> > polarization. Given a strong enough (er, very,
> very strong) magnetic
> > field, some sort of effect must be possible.
> (Pure, 100% speculation)
>
> Well, yes and no. You don't really have to resort
> to electrical charge
> of quarks to explain this, although that may be a
> component of the
> deeper particle physics explanation. The neutron,
> like the proton and
> electron, has a "spin magnetic moment", which an
> external magnetic
> field can act on. Unlike the electron and proton,
> it is not subject to
> the "Lorentz Force", the force felt by a charged
> particle moving
> through a magnetic field. The force resulting from
> the interaction of
> an external field with the spin magnetic moment
> (which doesn't mean the
> neutron is spinning, that's just what the quantum
> number describing
> this property is called) is much smaller than the
> Lorentz force
> interaction. So while it is very hard to cause
> neutron beams to bend,
> for example, one can use this force to magnetically
> focus such beams.
>
==============================================================================
> "Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun
> | Walter Amos
> der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II
> | amos(at)sedl.org
>
>
>
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