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Problems of scale
Oct. 4th, 2024 02:58 pmI was watching a Youtube video that had a lot of space combat. And as I did I saw several problems common to a number of series.
First off, were orbital installations around planets. Here they have vast arrays of objects of a size that is quickly determinable by comparison when ships open fir and move past them.
Problem? At that size and with the separations shown, it'd take billions or even trillions of them to surround the planet. ain't nobody got that sort of resources.
Next we have rotation. Prime example is when Delenn gives her ultimatum to the Earth fleet at Babylon 5. We see the Earthforce ships turning and retreating.
Problem? Earthforce doesn't have artificial gravity or inertial compensation. At those turn rates crew inside the ships would be subjected to enormous g-forces from centrifugal force. Ships hundres or thousands of feet long *can't* turn around in a few seconds.
Finally we have explosions. In space battles we she ships exploding all the time. Trouble is, besides using unrealistic models for the explosions (the explosion of the Death Star in some versions ofA New Hope have that ring effect. Which is due to being modeled on large *ground* explosions where that "ring" is the shock wave interacting with the ground) there's also the problem that both small ships and *huge* ships explode at the same rate.
That's not how it works. If a small ship explosion expands at so many feet (or meters) per second, so will that of a large ship. Which means the fireballs from the larger ships have to take longer to expand.
The large explosions will also be "smoother" because at larger scales the asymmetries even out.
First off, were orbital installations around planets. Here they have vast arrays of objects of a size that is quickly determinable by comparison when ships open fir and move past them.
Problem? At that size and with the separations shown, it'd take billions or even trillions of them to surround the planet. ain't nobody got that sort of resources.
Next we have rotation. Prime example is when Delenn gives her ultimatum to the Earth fleet at Babylon 5. We see the Earthforce ships turning and retreating.
Problem? Earthforce doesn't have artificial gravity or inertial compensation. At those turn rates crew inside the ships would be subjected to enormous g-forces from centrifugal force. Ships hundres or thousands of feet long *can't* turn around in a few seconds.
Finally we have explosions. In space battles we she ships exploding all the time. Trouble is, besides using unrealistic models for the explosions (the explosion of the Death Star in some versions ofA New Hope have that ring effect. Which is due to being modeled on large *ground* explosions where that "ring" is the shock wave interacting with the ground) there's also the problem that both small ships and *huge* ships explode at the same rate.
That's not how it works. If a small ship explosion expands at so many feet (or meters) per second, so will that of a large ship. Which means the fireballs from the larger ships have to take longer to expand.
The large explosions will also be "smoother" because at larger scales the asymmetries even out.
