Fun with ship stats
- Thread starter Unicron
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He calls out the sonic weapon from “A Taste of Armageddon” that can (somehow) reach into space as being wildly out of proportion at 18^12 decibels, but I saw somewhere else that that figure is so off the scale that the energy being emitted into the air to move it with such force would be enough to instantly incinerate the planet in a blast that would eventually consume the entire universe. Though gathering enough energy in one spot to charge such a weapon would create a black hole in the first place, a theoretical phenomena called a kugelblitz.
Apparently, as a practical matter, sound stops being sound at around 180 decibels, because the troughs in the sound wave become a vacuum at that point, though a single pressure wave can be more powerful than that.
Apparently, as a practical matter, sound stops being sound at around 180 decibels, because the troughs in the sound wave become a vacuum at that point, though a single pressure wave can be more powerful than that.
Having encountered more than my fair share of absurd numbers just in the Trek vs. Wars realm, that video was . . . disappointing.
The decibel thing is a minor example, but, as noted above, he barely touches on all that's weird about it. The little issue of sound in space means that, unless we're taking the presence of space sound effects to be an indication of space atmosphere all throughout Trek, we have to account for how a sonic weapon would operate in vacuum. A particle beam as carrier medium is a popular choice, though some sort of science fiction weapon capable of inducing vibration in the target (a la a modulated tractor beam) might be a superior choice for various reasons. Either way, I don't think we can really use that example as a statement on much of anything (besides the fact that raised shields are good) without more information.
More broadly, Star Trek suffers from a certain amount of mismatch in hard numbers, though in most cases there's just enough technobabble to cover it. Phasers are one example . . . the effects are frequently far more tremendous than the TNG TM would allow, for instance, and hardly compare against the book's own photon torpedo values. Nevertheless, Okuda and the gang trying to keep megawatt-level phasers and shield dissipation rates despite the fact that even a one kiloton nuclear detonation is almost petawatt class, much less the 60+ megatons implied in some areas of the TNG TM for a photon torpedo.
And, of course, I'd be remiss in not pointing out that the Spacedock guy picked the wrong Star Wars ICS book to rag on. One of them was written by a guy who'd participated in the Trek vs. Wars debates before my time and took issue with "typical Trekkies" and their "Trekkist fallacies". With assistance from several active debaters, the goal was, in their words, to drop in hard numbers designed to "add more examples to make {me} look foolish" and make Star Wars appear to be "a better comparison to Trek". The resulting ICS featured the addition of smaller guns on a ship not seen to have any, with them marked as slinging hundreds of gigatons per shot. That would've been a great example for the video.
The decibel thing is a minor example, but, as noted above, he barely touches on all that's weird about it. The little issue of sound in space means that, unless we're taking the presence of space sound effects to be an indication of space atmosphere all throughout Trek, we have to account for how a sonic weapon would operate in vacuum. A particle beam as carrier medium is a popular choice, though some sort of science fiction weapon capable of inducing vibration in the target (a la a modulated tractor beam) might be a superior choice for various reasons. Either way, I don't think we can really use that example as a statement on much of anything (besides the fact that raised shields are good) without more information.
More broadly, Star Trek suffers from a certain amount of mismatch in hard numbers, though in most cases there's just enough technobabble to cover it. Phasers are one example . . . the effects are frequently far more tremendous than the TNG TM would allow, for instance, and hardly compare against the book's own photon torpedo values. Nevertheless, Okuda and the gang trying to keep megawatt-level phasers and shield dissipation rates despite the fact that even a one kiloton nuclear detonation is almost petawatt class, much less the 60+ megatons implied in some areas of the TNG TM for a photon torpedo.
And, of course, I'd be remiss in not pointing out that the Spacedock guy picked the wrong Star Wars ICS book to rag on. One of them was written by a guy who'd participated in the Trek vs. Wars debates before my time and took issue with "typical Trekkies" and their "Trekkist fallacies". With assistance from several active debaters, the goal was, in their words, to drop in hard numbers designed to "add more examples to make {me} look foolish" and make Star Wars appear to be "a better comparison to Trek". The resulting ICS featured the addition of smaller guns on a ship not seen to have any, with them marked as slinging hundreds of gigatons per shot. That would've been a great example for the video.
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