On Tuesday, May 14, 2002 7:32 AM, Oerjan Ohlson
> [SMTP:oerjan.ohlson@telia.com] wrote:
Eeeuwwwww!!!!
That's an ugly time scale to play at; but probably more realistic given man's
propensity to find better way of exterminating ourselves.
> From 9,000 MCr starship to scrap metal in 5 minutes.
Not bothering to work out if the math is right: 5 minute turn; 1 mu = 200 km;
1 thrust = 1g?
> On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 03:16:01PM +1000, Robertson, Brendan wrote:
> Not bothering to work out if the math is right:
Not the same thing as Oerjan's suggestion. The basic problem with any scale
system is this:
If I accelerate at 10 m/s for 10 seconds, I'll be going at 100 m/s.
However, I will have covered 500 m.
If an MU were 1000 m, a turn 10 seconds and a thrust point 10 m/s, then
I ought to move half a MU on the turn I accelerate, then 1MU each turn
after that. If a thrust point is 20 m/s, then I move 1MU on the turn I
accelerate but should be going at speed 2 after that.
Therefore, whatever numbers are chosen, you won't get a physically accurate
result. It's probably a necessary compromise. (In essence, you model the
acceleration happening all at once at the start of the turn, rather than
spread throughout the turn.)
thrust = (MU size) / (turn length ^2), if you're using the velocity
measure
Double that if you're using the distance measure.
> Roger Burton West wrote:
> On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 03:16:01PM +1000, Robertson, Brendan wrote:
This just goes to show how amazing the inertial compensators are. Although the
average acceleration is a measly 1g, the acceleration is actually delivered in
almost instantaneous bursts of almost infinite impulse (thrust is is delivered
following a Chronecker-delta function [infinite magnitude, zero
duration, finite integral]), so the velocity changes in an almost steplike
manner. Fortunately, the inertial compensation is actually a side effect of
the main
> <chuckle> Well, except of course for the *other* neat scale available:
depending on exactly what you use for G, it's about 142 seconds
Brendan said
> Not bothering to work out if the math is right:
No, because the equation is d=.5at^2 -- since t is squared, assuming
10m/sec for G, 5 minutes gives you 450km