Small Comparison; Turbolaser vs Photon Torpedo

[Elheru Aran]

Okay, so out of curiosity and a slight itch to know...

We're all aware, I hope, that a turbolaser is more powerful than a photon torpedo. What I seek to know is, how much more powerful in terms of destruction inflicted?

Therefore I ask the following question: How much damage would one shot from one of the main turbolaser turrets on an Acclamator (200 gigatons) inflict upon an urban area the size of New York City, fired from orbit? Likewise, how much damage would a single photon (or quantum) torpedo do, again fired from orbit, at the same urban area?

[ANGELUS]

how much damage would a single photon (or quantum) torpedo do, again fired from orbit, at the same urban area?

I don't know, but in ST5 they fire a photon torpedo to 'God'. Kirk and the others go away from the area on foot before the impact and they're not even touched by the explosion. Also the rock structures directly on the area where not damaged that bad.

[Dakarne]

In the RotS novelization... Turbolasers are cited as being "Able to Vapourize a small town."

When you count the fact that there's a blast radius that doesn't just dissapate when it reaches "Small Town" and that there's going to be a shockwave...

I think it stands to reason that most, if not all, of New York would be incinerated.

[Elheru Aran]

how much damage would a single photon (or quantum) torpedo do, again fired from orbit, at the same urban area?

I don't know, but in ST5 they fire a photon torpedo to 'God'. Kirk and the others go away from the area on foot before the impact and they're not even touched by the explosion. Also the rock structures directly on the area where not damaged that bad.

Let's just go with the standard 64-megaton (IIRC?) estimate... I view the ST V torpedo as an one-off fuckup, personally.

[Dakarne]

Let's just go with the standard 64-megaton (IIRC?) estimate... I view the ST V torpedo as an one-off fuckup, personally.

Sort of like the film.

[Ghost Rider]

So we don't have Dakarne babble.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Science/Nuke.html

It won't provide as much as true anlysis but it will give a rough look at size of hole and such not.

[Perseid]

Well going by shear explosive power, a TL would decimate New York. Given the fact that Little Boy, the A-bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, was equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT and managed to destroy structures in a 1.5 mile radius, then a TL or even a Photon Torpedo would be sufficient to wipe a city off the map.

After working it out, a photon torpedo is about 5000 times more powerful than Little Boy, so the blast radius is 7384 miles.

TL power is just incredible, more than 15 million times the power of Little Boy, so blast radius is 23,076,923 miles.

Going by examples of destruction of a nuclear explosion I'd say that a single HTL at 200 gigatons would end life on Earth as we know it, never mind just destroying a city.

[Darth Wong]

Well going by shear explosive power, a TL would decimate New York. Given the fact that Little Boy, the A-bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, was equivalent to 13 kilotons of TNT and managed to destroy structures in a 1.5 mile radius, then a TL or even a Photon Torpedo would be sufficient to wipe a city off the map.

After working it out, a photon torpedo is about 5000 times more powerful than Little Boy, so the blast radius is 7384 miles.

TL power is just incredible, more than 15 million times the power of Little Boy, so blast radius is 23,076,923 miles.

Going by examples of destruction of a nuclear explosion I'd say that a single HTL at 200 gigatons would end life on Earth as we know it, never mind just destroying a city.

You used a linear scaling factor?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Turbolasers don't work like bombs, in that there's no massive blast radius, rather they're concentrated to relatively small points.

[Dakarne]

Going by examples of destruction of a nuclear explosion I'd say that a single HTL at 200 gigatons would end life on Earth as we know it, never mind just destroying a city.

So essentially... BDZ in a single shot? But wouldn't that make Imperial ships fully capable of destroying a planet? (Apologies to everyone If I'm wrong)

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Oh, I totally missed that idiotic scaling. Jesus...

[Lord Revan]

snip

in fact a 64 MT nuke has Air blast radius (widespread destruction) of only 28.5 km (17.8 miles)

and 200GT nuke has a blast Radius(widespread destruction) of 405.5 km (253.4 miles) and TL bolts don't act like nukes.

Both are from mikes nuke calculator which I trust more then your .

[Lord Revan]

Ghetto Edit:Even a nuke with same yield as a MTL trom the Acclamator has less then 200 times blast radius then that of the Little Boy.

[Perseid]

In the case of my totally shit calculations, I retract my statements and will go and sit in a corner.

[Bounty]

Let's just go with the standard 64-megaton (IIRC?) estimate... I view the ST V torpedo as an one-off fuckup, personally.

Variable yields. That was probably the bare minimum.

[Elheru Aran]

Let's just go with the standard 64-megaton (IIRC?) estimate... I view the ST V torpedo as an one-off fuckup, personally.

Variable yields. That was probably the bare minimum.

Ah, IIRC, it's been worked out that dropping a rock the same size from orbit would've done MORE damage than that torpedo...

To everybody: Much thanks. And CorSec? Don't sweat it, just don't do that again...

[Bounty]

Ah, IIRC, it's been worked out that dropping a rock the same size from orbit would've done MORE damage than that torpedo...

[non-canon]

You'll have to ask someone more familiar with the novels for this, but IIRC the movie novelisation said the torpedo was aimed at an underground generator. It'd explain the whimpy explosion.

[Stark]

If he's using the 64-MT figure, he doesn't care about canonicity, Bounty.

[Elheru Aran]

Er, 64 megatons isn't canon for photon torpedoes? What is, then...?

[Bounty]

If he's using the 64-MT figure, he doesn't care about canonicity, Bounty.

Just tryin' to avoid the ZOMG Fanon Alert !!11!! reaction

[Bounty]

Er, 64 megatons isn't canon for photon torpedoes? What is, then...?

64 megatons is the maximum amount of energy you can get from the 1.5 kg of matter/antimatter mentioned in the TM, assuming that all the energy is delivered at the target with zero loss along the way.

[Elheru Aran]

Er, 64 megatons isn't canon for photon torpedoes? What is, then...?

64 megatons is the maximum amount of energy you can get from the 1.5 kg of matter/antimatter mentioned in the TM, assuming that all the energy is delivered at the target with zero loss along the way.

Righto... I did think it was a bit high, but that was the figure I remembered being batted about a lot around here on the boards. On the other hand, there have been significantly lower estimates of the general firepower of PT's, calculated from onscreen evidence, but I decided to go with 64 MT as I couldn't remember the exact estimates and wanted a good number to hold onto.

[Ender]

In the RotS novelization... Turbolasers are cited as being "Able to Vapourize a small town."

When you count the fact that there's a blast radius that doesn't just dissapate when it reaches "Small Town" and that there's going to be a shockwave...

I think it stands to reason that most, if not all, of New York would be incinerated.

The small town bit isn't particularily useful unless you can define the are of a small town.

At its maximum size, the surface temp of the fireball is 7000 C, sufficient temperature for vaporization. for a nuke, the fireball radius in feet is equal to 145 times the yield in kt to 0.35. In other words, the formula is r=145*y^0.35 , where Y is KT and R is in feet.

Now here is how it gets tricky, how big is a small town? My hometown is classified as a village, has a population of ~28,000 and a surface area of 6.8 square miles. Thus the yield would be 151 MT. But Exeter, Rhode Island, with its population of ~6,000 has a surface area of 57.71 square miles for a yield of 3,735 MT. So depending on how big the town gives you different yields. And thats taking a simplistic look at it by comparing temperatures. Specific heats enter into it so really you should figure out the energy applied over and area and scale it, but that gets a bit too complicated.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Let's just go with the standard 64-megaton (IIRC?) estimate... I view the ST V torpedo as an one-off fuckup, personally.

Probably a fuck up. However, is it really that big of a stretch to assume that Kirk didn't want to die? Is it that much of a stretch to assume that the E-A crew didn't want to kill Kirk and Company?

[Lord Revan]

It probable that the Torp was set on yield that wouldn't hurt Kirk and co., also the Torp does hit hole in ground detonates an unknown distance from the surface.