Lysian sentry pods
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:15 pm
I recently watched Conundrum again, which, apart from being an entertaining episode in it's own right, also shows the use of the Enterprise's phasers versus several outclassed foes.
Now, the first of these is not quantifiable (Enterprise vs Lysian Destroyer) - yes, the Enterprise blows up the destroyer in no time flat using only it's phasers, but we do not know the size of the ship in question so we cannot determine any yields. It is, however, interesting to see a warship (which a destroyer is) be blown up in just one blast of the ships weapons.
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However, more interestingly (in my view) is the rapid destruction of a number (five to ten) Lysian Sentry pods. These are described as unmanned, metal objects 29 meters long.
Since I readily admit that calculating weapon yields is not my strongest suit, the question becomes what a rough ballpark figure is for the destruction of the pods. The visuals show them more or less vaporized by the weapons. Since there are no secondary explosions involved, I'm confident that the effects where created by the ships phasers itself and not through reactor breaches or overloads.
I'll try to find some screenshots later, but a first question is if someone would be willing to assist me in determining a realistic effective yield. See, any fool can decide to make the ships a solid block of metal and quote the vaporising energy required. I'm more interested in seeing a more neutral approach though.
My goal here is partly to see a low end* of phaser capabilities vs metal object and secondly I wish to create a thread later that addresses the 'phasers are ineffective versus any metal' claim. This is a starting point of sorts.
I don't particularly care if the yield found is high or low, as long as it can be seen as realistic.
*) The Enterprise is clearly not using full power to achieve these effects per phaser burst because the main array fires multiple shots at different targets at the same time to achieve the effect.
Now, the first of these is not quantifiable (Enterprise vs Lysian Destroyer) - yes, the Enterprise blows up the destroyer in no time flat using only it's phasers, but we do not know the size of the ship in question so we cannot determine any yields. It is, however, interesting to see a warship (which a destroyer is) be blown up in just one blast of the ships weapons.
--
However, more interestingly (in my view) is the rapid destruction of a number (five to ten) Lysian Sentry pods. These are described as unmanned, metal objects 29 meters long.
Since I readily admit that calculating weapon yields is not my strongest suit, the question becomes what a rough ballpark figure is for the destruction of the pods. The visuals show them more or less vaporized by the weapons. Since there are no secondary explosions involved, I'm confident that the effects where created by the ships phasers itself and not through reactor breaches or overloads.
I'll try to find some screenshots later, but a first question is if someone would be willing to assist me in determining a realistic effective yield. See, any fool can decide to make the ships a solid block of metal and quote the vaporising energy required. I'm more interested in seeing a more neutral approach though.
My goal here is partly to see a low end* of phaser capabilities vs metal object and secondly I wish to create a thread later that addresses the 'phasers are ineffective versus any metal' claim. This is a starting point of sorts.
I don't particularly care if the yield found is high or low, as long as it can be seen as realistic.
*) The Enterprise is clearly not using full power to achieve these effects per phaser burst because the main array fires multiple shots at different targets at the same time to achieve the effect.
