Demolishing Darkstar's bullshit about the novelization

[Darth Servo]

I'd like to know how he can claim that the windows are undamaged on the enterprise? We can't even see the damaged or undamaged windows in question!

In Scooter world, what ever he thinks is right. For the rest of us, its called "appeal to ignorance fallacy"

[Connor MacLeod]

What evidence is there that the Separatist warships, apart from the TradeFed Battleship, are not dedicated naval vessels?

for one thing, the Separatist frigate and destroyer aren't that solid (comapred to a "true" warship like a Venator.) - they have alot of hollow interriors and skeletal sections. Without shields, they're definitely lacking in the durability a dedicated capital ship has. (you can also tell this from the apparent thickness of the armor)

For another, when compared to a "True" warship of equal class or size, they don't match up. ( it takes 4-6 commerce guild support destroyers to equal a Victory or Venator-class.) Same for a Mandator vs a Tradefed battleship.

Third, there's doubts about their firepwoer capabilities due to armament (aside from the IH's quad TLs themselves, there is also the Trade Fed battleship's guns, which are under-sized for what one would expect of a "battleship" - they aren't even remotely comparable to an ISD's guns!)
This is true both in terms of the kinds and sizes of the weapons as well as the arrangement. (Same logic contrasting Rebel vs Imperial ships.. A Rebel ship of a given size is outgunned by an Imperial warship of equal size mainly due to the fact it lacks the heavy turrets.)

Fourth - there are design weaknesses in some of the ships. For example the Banking Clan Frigate the fuel tanks are located on the outside of the ship. Another example has the odd layouts for the reactors on the Invisible hand (virtually of them seem to be in the forward section of the ship.). Contrast this with the layout on a dedicated warship like an ISD or a Venator (where the reactor tends to be in the very middle of the ship, or close to the engines.)

[Hardy]

Both the ICS and the novelization make it apparent that the ship was subjected to a malfunction in its gravitic systems, which contributed ot the ship breaking up (in addition to being pounded by other warships, its uncontrolled spin, and whatnot.)

True. We all know what happens when forces are very suddenly removed, disturbing the pre-existing balances. Darkstar believes that a 1g change in force is rather meager, and I really don't know enough to contest that, however.

Having the inertial compensators malfunctioning would serve to let more violent accelerations hurt the ship, though. And if those "tensor fields" are anything like Trek's SIF, the ship would definitely be more prone to breaking up.

But, I still wonder how the Hand deorbits so quickly. Going from 7900 to >100 is not something that happens easily.

[Lone_Prodigy]

True. We all know what happens when forces are very suddenly removed, disturbing the pre-existing balances. Darkstar believes that a 1g change in force is rather meager, and I really don't know enough to contest that, however.

Having the inertial compensators malfunctioning would serve to let more violent accelerations hurt the ship, though. And if those "tensor fields" are anything like Trek's SIF, the ship would definitely be more prone to breaking up.

But, I still wonder how the Hand deorbits so quickly. Going from 7900 to >100 is not something that happens easily.

The gravity didn't just go offline, it went completely batshit insane. "Down" changed again and again from floor to ceiling to walls to corners. The reason why it deorbited so fast was that (if I rember right from the novelization) they lost control of the engines. In other words, they misfired and sent the Invisible Hand right toward the planet. So, not only was it literally being chewed to bits by a Republic fleet who didn't believe that he had Palpatine, it also had insane gravity systems and was going towards the planet very fast– hence, the break-up.

[Hardy]

The gravity didn't just go offline, it went completely batshit insane. "Down" changed again and again from floor to ceiling to walls to corners.

I suppose that heavy things like starfighters, droids, crew, and provisions went flying across large spaces adding more stressors to the bulkheads/walls/hull. And you could say that some parts of the ship couldn't witstand forces in directions they weren't accustomed to.

This, of course, is in addition to the pounding she was already taking.

The reason why it deorbited so fast was that (if I rember right from the novelization) they lost control of the engines. In other words, they misfired and sent the Invisible Hand right toward the planet.

Just as I was thinking.

Come to think of it, if she maintained her orbital speeds while plunging straight down, she'd be exposing a greater cross-section to the atmosphere and would have a much higher drag coefficient than if its front were facing the direction of travel.

I've supposed that the Hand is a rectangle 1000 by 100 metres (it looks slightly wider in the trailers, but I would need the ICS to be sure) with a Cd of 1.5. Based on figures for Earth's atmosphere, I've estimated (because I NEVER want to find myself using integration for a fictional universe) that the mean density of air it encountered was 0.45 kg/m³. At 7900 m/s, the Hand was probably incurring 1.4E12 N from the air. I have no idea what the Hand's mass is, but that's probably at least a g of acceleration.
And I'm not quite sure if it's a valid method, but if I multiply that force by the distance the Hand travelled (possibly 1000 km) on the way down, you can get about 1E18 Joules or about 240 MT of energy from drag.

Those calcs are based on too many assumptions and simplifications to hold weight, in my opinion, though.

Listing the forces that tear the Hand apart:

• Wild shifts in gravity
• Possible heavy objects flying around due to said shifts
• Hours of constant bombardment by Republic vessels
• Drag incurred from decelerating trough Coruscant's atmosphere
• Drag incurred through going headlong into the atmosphere
• Centripetal force from spinning rapidly
• Possible air and other fluids being blown out of compromised sections
• Accidental engine firings without inertial compensators or "tensor fields"
• Coruscant's gravity as the IH lost orbital speed

And the Enterprise D had only sustained minimal battle damage from the Klingon vessel and had her shields, SIF, and IDF on full power on the way down. To compare the E-D to the Invisible Hand would be most unfair.

[SylasGaunt]

I'm not sure what it was an armor against, since it does nothing to lightsabers and he was worried it would catch fire on a lightsaber-melted door.

Not as big as some of the others, but in the book he's not worried about his armorweave cloak catching fire on a lightsaber melted door, he's worried about getting his trousers scorched (and there's no mention of them being armorweave).