Shadow Slicer beam vs Seismic Charges (ATOC)

[Omega-13]

Its a simple question, which can slice and dice through more?
Before you jump quickly to a conclusion, ,the Seismic charges were said to be 12 gigatons, no problem, accepted, but this means that the entire 'ring' is 12 gigatons in yield, ,the shadow slicer beam is a fine thin beam, that might actualy put more energy on target.



So what does everyone think, if you had to put your bets down, and something had to be sliced up, would you pick the charge, ,or the beam,

[Durandal]

The charge pulverized many large asteroids. The slicer beam hasn't done anything like that to my knowledge.

[Omega-13]

The charge pulverized many large asteroids. The slicer beam hasn't done anything like that to my knowledge.

When the Narn base was attacked, the slicer went clean through several asteroids that were larger than both the Narn cruiser and the battle crab which is said to be anywhere from 1 to 3 km across, ,

[Stormbringer]

The charge pulverized many large asteroids. The slicer beam hasn't done anything like that to my knowledge.

When the Narn base was attacked, the slicer went clean through several asteroids that were larger than both the Narn cruiser and the battle crab which is said to be anywhere from 1 to 3 km across, ,

Which isn't as impressive as completely pulversing somewhat smaller asteroids.

Seismic Charges, easily.

[Darth Wong]

The work requirement for drilling a small hole is insignificant compared to the work requirement for pulverizing the entire mass.

[Ender]

If MS work like they supposedly do and are not just a beam of energy, I'll go with those. Ignoring the composition and heating/melting/vaporizing energy to break things apart ont eh molecular level is a major plus.

[Admiral Valdemar]

If MS work like they supposedly do and are not just a beam of energy, I'll go with those. Ignoring the composition and heating/melting/vaporizing energy to break things apart ont eh molecular level is a major plus.

Technically so does a big explosion.

[Omega-13]

The work requirement for drilling a small hole is insignificant compared to the work requirement for pulverizing the entire mass.

I know you've looked at the scene, i read your page about the Seismic charges,

Question to you,
Do you know what sort of asteroids they were? Their makeup?
I'm wondering what such a device would do to a ships hull...
Considering armour is much denser than rock...

[jaeger115]

Seismic charges, all the way.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Seismic charges, all the way.

Hehe, aye, I loved the delayed explosion effect which was cool, they still haven't got the knack of spherical shockwaves in sci-fi yet though.

[seanrobertson]

Its a simple question, which can slice and dice through more?
Before you jump quickly to a conclusion, ,the Seismic charges were said to be 12 gigatons, no problem, accepted, but this means that the entire 'ring' is 12 gigatons in yield, ,the shadow slicer beam is a fine thin beam, that might actualy put more energy on target.


So what does everyone think, if you had to put your bets down, and something had to be sliced up, would you pick the charge, ,or the beam,

Seismic charges are vastly superior.

What have we ever seen Spider beams do that a seismic
charge couldn't improve on by, oh, say, two or three orders
of magnitude?

Nothing.

Take the instance of three Spiders shooting at a Narn planet
as described here:

http://www.b5tech.com/science/weapons/d ... thray.html

Brandon is quick to make some really bad conclusions, which I've
talked about at length before at Spacebattles.com, but
let's examine his chiefmost assumption: the depth drilled.

JMS says the Shadow ships drilled all the way to the planet's
mantle? Okay. But whoops: even if we *generously* assumed
that the entire volume of rock the Shadows shot WAS vaporized,
running with Brandon's assumption that the planet is Earth-sized,
that means--ta-da! It has Earth-like GRAVITY.

That means that massive geysers of molten rock shooting
out of the surface are subject to one gee. Unless the
Shadow beam is truly magic, it isn't going to allow magma
to travel from the mantle to the surface at some 20 km/sec.
as Brandon inadvertently suggests.

Instead, we see the "magma" slowly pour over the Narn installation
at a rate of perhaps a couple hundred mph.

Thus, if the Shadows actually DID "penetrate the molten mantle"
and the magma from which is what we saw burying the base (as
JMS idiotically suggests), the crust is VERY thin. Like no more
than a kilometer thick.

All the sudden Brandon's one million terawatt figure is cut
by about three orders of magnitude; which figure, btw, could
EASILY still carve up starships as we frequently see on the show.

You're basically left with perhaps a maximum firepower of
a few hundred kilotons/sec. (or megatonnage if you really
push it) vs. gigatonnage. I vote for gigatonnage.