Follow up on "Question about the Hoth battle..."

[Hardy]

Link

Well, since that thread I've discovered the Drag Equation and am now able to make some rough calcs.

I'm answering whether or not a nuclear blast could tip an AT-AT.

AT-AT overbalancing torque:
2.45E7Nm
AT-AT overblancing impulse/momentum:
1.1E7Ns
Density of air:
1.225kg/m^3
Speed of sound in air:
320m/s IIRC
Approximate surface area of AT-AT's side:
100m²

I can plug these into the drag equation and then divide the tipping impulse by the result, to see how long an AT-AT could last in supersonic wind. Keep in mind, that I'm not factoring in increased air tempurature and pressure caused by a nuclear blast. The figures may be inaccurate, so I'm open to correction

I assume that the side of the AT-AT has a drag coefficient of 2 as most rectangles with these dimensions are close to this. The Cd may be higher, since the head is rather oddly shaped. But, having a Cd of two cancels out the 1/2 part of the equation.

So, we have 1.225*320²*100=12 544 000 N lower limit, since I'm assuming that airspeed is limited to the speed of sound.

Then I divide the tipping impulse by that and according to their quotient, the AT-AT, would only last 0.87 seconds in supersonic wind. If it had advance warning and was able to kneel to three metres above the ground, it would only last 1.56 seconds.

So, if winds were to sustain for at least one second, an AT-AT could be knocked over, as Walper suggested. That is, if I'm not mistaken, since my figures are a bit questionable.

[Adam Reynolds]

Here is a place with a rebuttal to that argument

http://web.archive.org/web/200101152152 ... roops.html

[Hardy]

Here is a place with a rebuttal to that argument

http://web.archive.org/web/200101152152 ... roops.html

1. I perfectly understand ehy nukes weren't used. I'm simply trying to assess the potential of a nuke for tipping an AT-AT.

2. My estimates are above that of the Trekkie's and a bit more accurate. They're somewhat in line with Poe's.

Did I miss something?

[Hardy]

It turns out that I greatly overestimated the the wind speed. After some Googling, I found that most sources agree that nukes have wind speeds close to 800 km/hr or 222 m/s(rounded to 220).

I also went back and actually measured the surface area of the AT-AT. The side measures ~175 m² total.

I may want to make a better estimate on the drag coefficient of the AT-AT's side before proceeding again. I'm really not sure about its shape. Until then, I'm stuck with 5.19E6 N/Cd. I eagerly await removing the Cd term.