*shrug*Mr. Oragahn wrote:Yes, it's very straightforward. You just have to look it up for any definition of the prefix tetra. That's why I tried to come with a "slang" explanation.
Can't remember what it was though. It's been a while I read this thread or typed anything about 40K.
But one could say it was a typo. Even I, knowing very well the difference, am not above making a typing mistake about such units.
Whatever the case, the objection was withdrawn. I personally think it's a typo. As you've said, it's easy to mix one units. I've personally mixed watts and joules even when I know there's a very important difference between the two.
Yeah, I should have updated that. I realized that nukes and lasers tend to be rather different. The only way this thing is going to come anywhere close to acting like a nuke is if it's fired together tightly enough to basically equate to atom smashing.Terajoule beams don't give much information about power. To obtain the power of a nuke, and yet only deliver some terajoules, a laser would need to have a power figure ~10^6 times the energy figure, and yet also not be fired for more than microseconds (or less). Otherwise, we get the same amount of energy delivered into the target, but I wouldn't count on much of a nuclear blast. More like a huge cooking, really. And still much slower than a nuclear cooking.
Basically.I think that if you fire a terajoule beam over one second, in terms of equivalent nuclear effects, you are essentially firing a stream of megajoule nukes (nuclear grenades) at a rate of 1/ µs (so you have fired a million of them in the end).
I am not sure about the nature of the blast that will be formed that way.
Surely, energy piling up tht way will probably be much more efficient at digging into a small spot, but the blast?
The shockwave would be, imho, less formidable. I wouldn't count on getting anywhere close to those 20 psi of overpressure.
I actually realized a second mistake in there. I think when I was doing the calcs, I had thought that when it was referring to the direct explosive power (ie, anything immediately hit is destroyed) was referring to it in square kilometers. It actually stated it as meters across. Since the blast wave is described as being larger than the immediate area determined to be automatically destroyed, I take that to mean that the fireball itself is a couple dozen meters across.It is however much more interesting when it comes to shells. They may not be of nuclear nature (although I think there are many descriptions shell variants being loaded with fusion or fission explosive I think), but we're definitely within the palatable realm of detonations, for which blasts will be closer to what nukes produce. Beside, I don't expect the shells to be less potent than good ol' TNT charges. :P
At a yield of 1.5 kilometers, the fireball would be .04 kilometers across, or 40 meters. So we could probably determine that your average macrocannon has a yield of roughly 1-3 kilotons. The lance still eludes me since it's obvious that they treat it like a nuclear bomb, but lasers work a bit differently. And unfortunately, no calculator I can find really does a good job of working on something of that level of firepower. Of course, we could make an educated guess that a lance probably isn't more than one or two digits (at most) greater than that of a single macrocannon. So anywhere between 20 - 200 kilotons is where these ships are going to absolutely have to max out. And honestly, the later is so much more powerful that it's unheard of.
So my personal figures would be:
Macrocannons: 1-3 kilotons
Lances: 10-30 kilotons.
But as an aside, I'd like to post something else I find...amusing. It's in regards to the absurd claims of acceleration. Just some things I've picked up from Battlefleet Koronus:
For the record, 2.3g acceleration is 23 meters per second. That's right folks, the ships that can apparently produce countless gigatons/teratons of energy are limited to 2.3g accelerations.The Gryphon
Hull: Battlecruiser
Dimensions: 5.4 km long, 0.85 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 29 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 107,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 2.3 gravities max sustainable acceleration
The Gryphon is an ancient and redoubtable ship, said to be constructed in the Jovian shipyards more than five millennia ago. Like most Mars-class battlecruisers, she's equipped as a fleet flagshihp and carrier vessel, preferring to remain out of range of her opponents so she can pummel them with Nova CAnnon and long-range lance fire, then smother them with waves of attack craft.
Speaking of the Nova Cannon though...
If I remember correctly, relativistic speed is considered to be at 10% the speed of light, or 30,000 kilometers a second. According to this source, the Nova Cannon can't even reach relativistic velocities.Mars-pattern Nova Cannon
Though Nova Cannons are quite rare, even by standards of starship construction, the Mars pattern is the most common construction template. These massive cannons--hundreds of meters in length--fire an enormous shell that echoes a traditional explosive shell, though on a much larger scale. These shells are accelerated to near relativistic velocities, causing an explosion that detonates, causing an explosion that detonates with more force than a dozen of plasma warheads.
Going back to acceleration though, to be fair, the Gryphon is a bit slower to the cruisers, which have accelerations up to 2.5Gs. Their raiders however, are considerably faster:
Cobras of Wrath of Saint Drusus Squadron
Hull: Raider
Dimensions: 1.5 km long, .3 km abeam at fins approx.
Mass: 5.7 megatonnes approx.
Crew: 15,000 crew, approx.
Accel: 7.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration.
The Cobra-class destroyers of the Wraith of Saint Drusus Squardron are quintessential examples of their design. The vast majority of their interior space is taken up with torpedo tubes and stowage space, with only a few macrocannons for defense.
For extra lulz, the super fast Eldar aren't so fabulous either.
Hellbore
Hull: Frigate
Class: Hellebore-class frigate
Dimensions: 1.8 km long, .3 km abeam
Mass: 5 megatonnes approx.
Crew: Unknown
Accel: 9.5 gravities max sustainable acceleration
Gaining infamy as "the most heavily armed frigate in the Gothic Sector" during the devastating Gothic War, Hellebores are designed to sow confusion among a target fleet through a swift dispersal of torpedoes. It then follows up with a barrage and pulsar fire.
Their frigates tend to clock in at 9.5Gs (95 meters a second) acceleration while their cruisers (fairly large ones at that!) clock in at 8Gs (80 meters a second) acceleration. To be fair--that is fucking fast as far as modern craft is concerned. Getting something with a mass of 18 megatonnes to break the sound barrier in just over 18 seconds takes an immense amount of power. To be fair, this is even damn impressive for Imperial craft, which can accelerate at 25 meters a second on average, which would mean it'd take them just under a minute to accelerate something with the of 20-30 megatonnes to supersonic.Eclipse Cruiser
Hull: Cruiser
Class: Eclipse-class cruiser
Dimensions: 4.7 km long, 1.4 km abeam at wings
Mass: 18 megatonnes approx
Crew: Unknown
Accel: 8 gravities max sustainable acceleration
The Eclipse class is one of the most feared Corsair voidships as it combines heavy firepower (courtesy of the paired Pulsar Lances in the prow) with multiple squadrons of attack craft (usually evenly split between Darkstar fighters and Eagle bombers). This allows a single Eclipse carrier to eviscerate a convoy of civilian and military vessels.
Of course, when you compare it to things like Star Trek and Stargate...the acceleration is just bad. Going by the TNG TM, the Galaxy Class has an acceleration of 10 kilometers a second. And that's Starfleet's equivalent to a heavy battlecruiser. Of course, the Enterprise is much smaller (and lighter thanks the mass reduction fields...), but that doesn't change the point. Against Star Trek, Star Gate, and other sci-fi not limited to double digit Gs of acceleration, an Imperial vessel is going to be rather slow and incapable of combating something like that.
It's rather sad when you look at the Darkstar Fighter, an Eldar fighter craft, whose cruising speed is 2,750 kph. Supersonic ranges from 1,470 kph to 6,150 kph. This thing moves at 763.88 meters a second. Even assuming this thing can reach its cruising speed in 1 second flat, its acceleration is only 76.38Gs. I also find it unlikely, even for the Eldar. As a note, its tactical speed is suggested to be 30 meters--if that is its acceleration, it would suggest 3Gs. That's not bad really. It'd take it only half a minute to reach its full velocity. The Eagle Bomber in comparison, has a cruising velocity of 2,000 kilometers per hour and a tactical speed of 20. So assuming that means 2Gs of acceleration, it'd reach its top speed in 27.77 seconds.
The only problem I really find here though is that this would mean that their capital ships have better accelerations than their actual fighters.