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This is a physics question from someone who detests physics (why do you think I'm going into medicine?!!) and math so please bear with me and treat me like a blushing virgin.

When capital ships are blasting each other with their turbolasers they are giving off exactly how much energy (rhetorical)? And where is all that energy dissipating to? How are the shields compensating for the various forms of energy and momentum? Are they absorbing everything? Or would you expect a poor fighter to be destroyed in the blast radius which I'm assuming would be pretty damn large then.

Also, fighters. They have weapons in the kT range. Weapons that powerful would probably knock out a good portion of my city. Probably at least a block a shot. So how can shots just "clip" or damage another fighter and not immediately vaporize them?

Trytostaydead wrote:When capital ships are blasting each other with their turbolasers they are giving off exactly how much energy (rhetorical)?

All told, an ISD probably has an output of 1x10^24 watts

And where is all that energy dissipating to?

The target. Or do you mean WRT the shields? Then its just going off into space as it was splintered back.

How are the shields compensating for the various forms of energy and momentum?

Momentum is dealt with by shield layout and bracings and mountings so the momentum of a collision is evenly spread over the entire hull. Energy depends on how you think shields work.

Are they absorbing everything?

No, in the movies we see bolt-shield interactions redirecting chunks back into the environment.

Or would you expect a poor fighter to be destroyed in the blast radius which I'm assuming would be pretty damn large then.

If ir was hit by part of the splinter, yes.

Also, fighters. They have weapons in the kT range. Weapons that powerful would probably knock out a good portion of my city. Probably at least a block a shot. So how can shots just "clip" or damage another fighter and not immediately vaporize them?

Shields, materials, and the fact that lasers work nothing like bombs, and the pressure waqve devestated most of the city at Hiroshima.

Ender wrote:

Also, fighters. They have weapons in the kT range. Weapons that powerful would probably knock out a good portion of my city. Probably at least a block a shot. So how can shots just "clip" or damage another fighter and not immediately vaporize them?

Shields, materials, and the fact that lasers work nothing like bombs, and the pressure waqve devestated most of the city at Hiroshima.

Don't forget that the effect is concentrated at a very small area, unlike an atmospheric explosion, which by it's very definition implies an outward motion.

Ender wrote:Shields, materials, and the fact that lasers work nothing like bombs, and the pressure waqve devestated most of the city at Hiroshima.

Hiroshima will forever be a horrible example of blast damage, since much of the destruction resulted from a firestorm that formed afterwards in the wood and paper city.

Thus creating the Anime/Japanese Sci-Fi rule of physics that everything is flamable, and energy weapons will create a big "Ball" before sending out a small "beam"