A lot of energy

[defanatic]

We are told that Star Wars turbolasers are capable of delivering huge amounts of energy, able to destroy cities, and render the surface of planets uninhabitable.

Another asteroid in a previous scene may have been as large as 100 meters in diameter, requiring at least 31,000 terajoules to vaporise!

Awesome! Of course, this is a low end figure. The power level may have been lower (you are not going to waste huge amounts of power on asteroids, you need that for killing shields on other ships) than the highest available.

So, one turbolaser shot carries at least 31,000 TJ.

31,000 TJ = 31000 * 10^12 J
1 Megaton = (approx) 4.184 * 10^15 J
TL/MT = 7.409 Megatons per Turbolaser shot

So, now that we have a comparative figure, I have a question unrelated to Star Wars (but we need this, because we know what star wars weapons can do already).

If a Star Destroyer's turbo lasers can make a planet's surface uninhabitable in a few hours with 7.409 Megatons of energy, what would a 600 Gigaton blast do? Do note the increase in order of magnitude.

Also, have I got my calculations right?

[NecronLord]

Moving to Pure Star Wars.

[Lord Revan]

We are told that Star Wars turbolasers are capable of delivering huge amounts of energy, able to destroy cities, and render the surface of planets uninhabitable.

Another asteroid in a previous scene may have been as large as 100 meters in diameter, requiring at least 31,000 terajoules to vaporise!

Awesome! Of course, this is a low end figure. The power level may have been lower (you are not going to waste huge amounts of power on asteroids, you need that for killing shields on other ships) than the highest available.

So, one turbolaser shot carries at least 31,000 TJ.

31,000 TJ = 31000 * 10^12 J
1 Megaton = (approx) 4.184 * 10^15 J
TL/MT = 7.409 Megatons per Turbolaser shot

So, now that we have a comparative figure, I have a question unrelated to Star Wars (but we need this, because we know what star wars weapons can do already).

If a Star Destroyer's turbo lasers can make a planet's surface uninhabitable in a few hours with 7.409 Megatons of energy, what would a 600 Gigaton blast do? Do note the increase in order of magnitude.

Also, have I got my calculations right?

the calc seem to be right, but you seem to have misunderstood the concept of lower limit.

The ESB asteroid scene gives us a lower limit (aka we know that ISD must capable of this level yields), but no upper limit

around 10 MT (6 MT for the Acclamator) is right for the LTL or PDG of the ISD, but as ISD also has MTLs and HTLs, so it's max firepower is greater (there's an estimate that HTLs of the VnSD are 8TT per shot and the MTLs of the Acclamator class are 200 GT per shot).

[defanatic]

No upper limit, eh?

around 10 MT (6 MT for the Acclamator) is right for the LTL or PDG of the ISD, but as ISD also has MTLs and HTLs, so it's max firepower is greater (there's an estimate that HTLs of the VnSD are 8TT per shot and the MTLs of the Acclamator class are 200 GT per shot).

But where do those figures come from? Also, is it reasonable to assume that the LTLs is a whole order of magnitude less powerful that the MTLs?

And what is a VnSD? PDG?

edit
Also, that didn't really answer my question.

Also, why do people complain about there being no edit button?

[Lord Revan]

the 200 GT figure is from AOTC:ICS, the 8 TT figure is from ROTS:ICS (though it's never said outright, that's why I call it an estimate)

VnSD = Venator class Stardestroyer (the republic SD from ROTS)
PDG =Point Defense Gun

and 7 MT is nowhere close enough for a BDZ.

[SCVN 2812]

Here's a thought, perhaps MTLs and the Acclamator guns are two entirely different calibres of turbolaser. Going off of memory, a number of the Seperatist ships are listed as just having turbolasers while the Venator specifically is equipped with MTLs. Its a rather longish firepower gap between the heavy turbolaser and the Acclamator TLs, perhaps the MTL is somewhere inbetween.

[Ender]

the 200 GT figure is from AOTC:ICS, the 8 TT figure is from ROTS:ICS (though it's never said outright, that's why I call it an estimate)

VnSD = Venator class Stardestroyer (the republic SD from ROTS)
PDG =Point Defense Gun

and 7 MT is nowhere close enough for a BDZ.

Who the fuck got 8 Tt? Because they must have flunked math.

It works out to 50 TT per barel on the Venator.

[FTeik]

the 200 GT figure is from AOTC:ICS, the 8 TT figure is from ROTS:ICS (though it's never said outright, that's why I call it an estimate)

VnSD = Venator class Stardestroyer (the republic SD from ROTS)
PDG =Point Defense Gun

and 7 MT is nowhere close enough for a BDZ.

Who the fuck got 8 Tt? Because they must have flunked math.

It works out to 50 TT per barel on the Venator.

Five to ten shots per second?

[Ender]

the 200 GT figure is from AOTC:ICS, the 8 TT figure is from ROTS:ICS (though it's never said outright, that's why I call it an estimate)

VnSD = Venator class Stardestroyer (the republic SD from ROTS)
PDG =Point Defense Gun

and 7 MT is nowhere close enough for a BDZ.

Who the fuck got 8 Tt? Because they must have flunked math.

It works out to 50 TT per barel on the Venator.

Five to ten shots per second?

Not from the same barel, fastest clocked was 12 per broadside, which is still suficient for them to be full power 50 TT shots.

[Lord Revan]

ok I misremembered, so it's 50 TT per barrel

[Star-Blighter]

I heard that an ISD can BDZ a planet in about 45 min if there is no pause in the bombardment. Is this estimate accurate?

[Star Wars Fan]

i thought it was an hour

[Lord Revan]

IIRC the <1h estimate is based on fact that there's (for all intents and purposes) no survivors from a BDZ operation, but as far as I know there's no official word on how long will BDZ take.

[Ender]

i thought it was an hour

Invisible Hand did it in an hour. An Imperator has atleast 10x the power behind it, and throws more of its power to its guns, so it can be faster.

[apocolypse]

i thought it was an hour

Invisible Hand did it in an hour. An Imperator has atleast 10x the power behind it, and throws more of its power to its guns, so it can be faster.

IIRC, wasn't it an unspecified number of ships including the IH that participated in the BDZ of Humbarine? I'll have to dig it out of my RotS:ICS when I get home, but I thought I recalled it being a "fleet" activity. I'll have to double-check when I get back.

Edit: okay, I found the part I was looking for under the section "Infamous Tricks" in the IH entry.

*snip* "The ship was also used to supervise naval attacks on 26 strategic Loyalist worlds. These included the hour-long orbital bombardment that depopulated and melted the curst of the former city-planet of Humbarine, an ancient founding world of the Republic."