photorps are/aren't.
I'm playing around with some figures to see if they're roughly
in line with the ranges many of us have suggested. I wanted
to compile a list of the best figures for perusal elsewhere,
among some misinformed friends of mine at another
forum (those at starshipmodeler.net). I'm having a very
lighthearted discussion with a pal there, confused as he
is
One approach is to look at the energy necessary to
"destroy the E-D" with proximity explosions in shows
like "Q Who?" and "The Nth Degree." This is one of
the things I've wondered about in the past, myself, but
this was brought up by the Starshipmodeler pal, too. I tend to think
that the crew is somewhat anal about *any* perceived
danger to the ship, but out of fairness to my unwashed
modeling breatheren, I figured I'd take the characters'
dialogue somewhat literally just to emphasize how consistent
photorps are typically portrayed.
First, Michael has estimated that the cube in "Q Who?"
was between 5 and 10 kilometers behind the E-D. I agree.
The E-D prepares to fire photorps, but Data states that
"at this range, without our shields, there is a high degree of probability a photon detonation could destroy the Enterprise." As
I said, Data could easily be wrong. He could even be
thinking of multiple torpedo detonations since
the E-D WAS firing volleys of three torpedoes at the cube,
IIRC.
Anyway, we know 200 gigajoules did thermal damage to
the E-D's hull in "Survivors," right? Good, simple figure.
(How much more is necessary to destroy the ship is unknown...
anyone care to guess how much energy an unshielded
GCS could realistically take? And did that hit strike
the ship *directly*, since Worf did report that the shields
were down a second time?)
So, to at least damage the ship with explosions some 5-10km
out (I think closer to 5 is about right), assuming a frontal
area of about 60,000 square meters, we'd need a 238 kiloton
photorp. At 10 km, the torpedo (or torpedOES, plural) would
need to yield 1 megaton.
Sounds very consistent to me. I'll present the 240 kiloton
figure as a rough "lower-limit," though yes, I know it's
not a *proper* lower-limit. (I'll tell them that.)
Another way I figured we might look at it is from the perspective
of "Minefield." A quarter kiloton explosion took out a large
chunk of the NX-01, so the actual energy involved would be
less than half that--or <520 gigajoules. We're even told
that had the mines gone off closer to the warp core, it would've
been fatal!
I'm in generous mode now. For a firm upper-limit,
I'll guess that destroying the entire ship literally requires blowing
up all of its mass. No warp core detonations or PDN explosions.
The NX-01 lost maybe a twentieth or so (bad guess) of its volume in that
blast, so to blow up the entire [inert] ship similarly would
require no more than about 10 terajoules. 2.5 kilotons! And
that's pretty consistent with what we see on the show from the
"phase cannons," so no one can whine about inconsistencies.
The E-D is a lot bigger, and many would argue that it's made
of sterner stuff, but the NX-01 had the benefit of its "polarized
hull plating." The E-D does not. So you further crudely guess,
based on the size differential, it'd take about 9 times more
energy to similarly blow up all the E-D's "parts," or 90 terajoules.
A whopping ~23 kilotons! Wow!
At five klicks, a 150 megaton explosion--which I'll reiterate could come from THREE photorps--would besufficient to match that energy.
I know, I know. That involves a long chain of bad guesses,
extremely simplistic damage models, and I dunno what else.
I'll be honest about this when I give these guys the numbers.
I'm interested in general order of magnitude stuff anyway.
Now, that last no. seems entirely too high to me (largely due to the ridiculous concession of blowing up the entire ship and treating it as if it
was a big rock), so I might remind them that a properly placed explosion could do the job, a'la "Minefield." I'll figure the E-D's greater size means it's not quite as easy to get to the warp core. But at most, an explosion proportionate to the E-D's mass (less than 9 times that which could've killed NX-01 but sadly didn't) should suffice; i.e., in the neighborhood
of a whopping one kiloton
That would mean the proximity detonations would be in
the 5 megaton range, btw, in "Q Who?" at least.
The fellow with whom I'm discussing this subject is of the opinion
that torpedoes are more in line with the TM figures if not higher. I've got
a lot more in my bag of tricks to show him later, but right now,
insofar as proximity detonations are concerned (our current
slant on the topic), I think this is EXTREMELY rough but conveys
my point well enough. Thoughts?
Oh, and keep in mind, I'm not out to flame him. He's a friendly,
and quite bright but somewhat removed from the versus community's
attention to technical detail. Soon enough, I'll have him going left-right, left-right to the Imperial March
