Upper limit photon torpedoes...

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Post by Darth Wong »

Galaxy wrote:Could someone name all those numerous incidents that contradict 64MT torps?
Could someone name one that supports them? A capability is always presumed nonexistent or minimal unless you have either proof or a damned good reason. You have presented neither.
Pegasus isn't a good example to derive a energy estimate. There's no mention of how many torps the enterprise was carrying at the time, and i don't recall them shooting any torps at the asteroid to prove Riker's comment.
If Riker was wrong, somebody on the bridge crew would have pointed it out. They were looking for options. Moreover, it doesn't matter if they were carrying a completely full load. Even if they'd used up 50 torpedoes (doubtful, since I don't know if they fired 50 torpedoes in the entire TNG run and they resupplied at starbase many times), the number would not significantly change.

With 64 megaton torpedoes, they would need only a handful to destroy that big asteroid. Whether they were carrying 200 or 275, the point remains. 64 MT torps are wrong.
I think everyone just filled in the missing pieces of the equation with assumptions.
I think you're just being a jack-ass, and trying to generate doubt by acting as though any perceived imprecision at all gives you a blank cheque to skew the numbers by one or two orders of magnitude.
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Post by Darth Wong »

TheDarkling wrote:Well according to the show theres sound in space again account for the medium and also those lights on the hull can't account for the lighting.
So it's an enhanced-light camera. Do you look at silent footage with sound tacked on and conclude that it's all crap? Do you look at night-vision footage and conclude that it's all crap because the world isn't grainy and green? Don't be a jack-ass.

Your objective is to reduce or eliminate as much objective evidence as possible, in favour of subjective interpretations of dialogue and assumptions of character infallibility. As I said, Trek fundie. When someone's biggest goal is to eliminate the only forms of evidence which are objective, this says all you need to know about him.
No I don't want to be grouped with fundies but threats will not change my opinion.
It's not a threat; it's an accurate description. You are thinking like a fundie. You do prefer the subjective over the objective.
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Post by Darth Servo »

Darth Wong wrote:
TheDarkling wrote:Well according to the show theres sound in space again account for the medium and also those lights on the hull can't account for the lighting.
So it's an enhanced-light camera. Do you look at silent footage with sound tacked on and conclude that it's all crap? Do you look at night-vision footage and conclude that it's all crap because the world isn't grainy and green? Don't be a jack-ass.

Your objective is to reduce or eliminate as much objective evidence as possible, in favour of subjective interpretations of dialogue and assumptions of character infallibility. As I said, Trek fundie. When someone's biggest goal is to eliminate the only forms of evidence which are objective, this says all you need to know about him.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Darkling's methods eerily similar to those of holocaust and lunar landing deniers? :shudder:
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Post by Durandal »

Here are some ASVS threads you guys might be interested in.

Link 1
Link 2

Enjoy.
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Post by Durandal »

God fucking dammit. Why does the Edit button not show up on half my posts?
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Post by TheDarkling »

I'm not talking about getting rid of objective evidence at all I'm simply saying consider the source.
But I guess the huge Bird of prey is back in action then (what was it 10’s or 100’s of KM?).

On the earlier point - I'm being a fundie because I take the words of experts on the trek universe (characters that live in said universe) over yours - if it goes against what we see then fair enough they are wrong (considering the source) but you can't impose our physics over theirs.
Much like talking the word of some preacher over scientists but oh no of course not because that wouldn't paint you in too good a light.

A fundie questions science without any real reason - scientists can be incorrect but observed information can't (just interpretation of that data (after accounting for errors yadda yadda etc)) however what we have here is evidence that isn't 100% because due to what it is (a tv show/books/movies) it can and will have errors in it thus treating it as 100% accurate isn't wise.

I do not prefer the subjective over the objective, if we see the sky and its green and a character says its red then we know the sky is green.

However if we don't see the sky but 100 people on the surface say its red we should be encouraged to believe it because we don't have evidence to prove it wrong.

Also if the sky has a huge sign saying "Insert FX here" im inclined to believe that is the fault of the medium (just like if we saw a BoP in the sky that seemed to be the size of a moon or some such).

I will quote someone from sb.com who made a rather nice list proving my point.
Hey, great! SFX goofs like the stormies armor are now indicitive of the actual way things are. Now TIEs can cloak, because we saw a shadow of a 4th tie when 3 were shown. And because we see some weird reflection when Han is running out of the bunker, that could be a personel shield the crew is wearing. Chewie is a cyborg because when he picks up threepios head in ESB, you see a reflection of what looks like a camera and for some weird reason a boom mike shown. Wars medical equipment is so good that it can function when it is not hooked up, like how it was backwards on Vader's chest in ANH. And lightsabres have a solid metal core to them that appears out of no where like we saw in Kenobi's during the DS fight. Plus our Corellian corvettes can change size in mid flight, so they will just shrink out of the way everytime Trek tries to target them.

And now Warp drive is impossible without somekind of strange string like material shooting off the ship like in TOS. There is no aft torpedo launcher on the GCS, it is just a tiny weapons array. Since we know from scaling in Way of the Warrior and ST3 that BoP are only about 50 m long, this means the GCS is only about 212 m long, as per this pic.
When making sense of what is going on the brain is required to pick out the flaws in the medium from actual intent, for example I have no problem with people saying alot of SF ship to ship action takes place at close range - its a concession to the medium but I accept however in this nstance (which I can't even really remember) when we are told the distance is so much but we see it's far less I'm forced to consider the point that its more likely they are at the distance stated than the distance imposed by the medium.

What you are doing Wong is placing modern science above canon evidence (no matter if that evidence is dialogue or not), the mystery chemical either breaks our laws of physics (you have no reason to override the dialogue except to preserve modern physics) or uses some technobabble cop out (sucks energy from subspace, weird chain reaction etc) you simply say it doesn't occur but with no valid reason - you are putting non canon data (real science) over dialogue, you can preserve both by some other explanantion but the fact is yuo have no reason to doubt what they are saying in the instance of Garths bottle of doom - yet you do simply because you wish to.

Darth Servo: How so? or are you just slinging insults/attacking the man and not his argument.
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Post by Darth Servo »

TheDarkling wrote:I do not prefer the subjective over the objective, if we see the sky and its green and a character says its red then we know the sky is green.
You do prefer subjective over objective because you think military personell are physics experts and if one of them makes a statement, it must be the absolute guaranteed literal truth and your literal interpretation is the only possible one. I doube many real life professional soldiers know its impossible for a black hole to have a crack in its event horizion (or even what an event horizion actually is).
When making sense of what is going on the brain is required to pick out the flaws in the medium from actual intent
And human dialogue is easily flawed as a medium and no one with a functioning brain takes dialogue on equal footing as observed phenomena.
for example I have no problem with people saying alot of SF ship to ship action takes place at close range - its a concession to the medium but I accept however in this nstance (which I can't even really remember) when we are told the distance is so much but we see it's far less I'm forced to consider the point that its more likely they are at the distance stated than the distance imposed by the medium.
Don't you realise it would be FAR EASIER to show ships 40,000 apart than it would be for ships <10 km apart since you would only need to show one ship? Great distances are not limited by the visual medium.
What you are doing Wong is placing modern science above canon evidence (no matter if that evidence is dialogue or not), the mystery chemical either breaks our laws of physics (you have no reason to override the dialogue except to preserve modern physics) or uses some technobabble cop out (sucks energy from subspace, weird chain reaction etc) you simply say it doesn't occur but with no valid reason - you are putting non canon data (real science) over dialogue, you can preserve both by some other explanantion but the fact is yuo have no reason to doubt what they are saying in the instance of Garths bottle of doom - yet you do simply because you wish to.
Just to confirm, are you talking about Garth in 'Whom Gods Destroy'?
Darth Servo: How so? or are you just slinging insults/attacking the man and not his argument.
Earlier in your post you said, "however what we have here is evidence that isn't 100% because due to what it is (a tv show/books/movies) it can and will have errors in it thus treating it as 100% accurate isn't wise.
Do you realize that is is the EXACT SAME response given by creationists, holocaust deniers and lunar landing sceptics? Its bullshit when they use it to throw out evidence and its bullshit when you do.
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Post by TheDarkling »

SF are scientists before military (by and large) besides knowing the capabilities of explosives and knowing how to use military equipment is something you would think the military would be trained in.

I'm not saying dialogue takes an equal standing to observation in fact I gave an example showing exactly that - please read my post. :roll: .

I'm talking about Garth in whom Gods destroy but also that uber antimatter of spocks - whcih rocks the ship in orbit from an explosion on the ground shwoing that it was rather more powerful than usual (and im sure there are many other such incidents in trek).

Sigh Im not saying because its Tv its not trustworthy you... im saying because its a tv SHOW thats fiction, full of SFX and concessions to the viewer that you have to consider the source - I can't decide if you are an idiot for thinking thats what I meant or that you have met far to many idiots in your life to have such low expectations of people, care to share?
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Post by Darth Servo »

Damn it, would someone clean up durandal's links. I hate it when the whole line won't fit within the screen and I have to scroll left and right to read it.
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Post by Durandal »

Again, sorry about that, but the edit and delete buttons aren't showing up for me. It's rather irritating.
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Post by Darth Servo »

TheDarkling wrote:SF are scientists before military (by and large) besides knowing the capabilities of explosives and knowing how to use military equipment is something you would think the military would be trained in.
Really? You've got SF Academy's curriculum and course syllabi handy?
I'm talking about Garth in whom Gods destroy
The man was insane. You think he's reliable? :roll:
but also that uber antimatter of spocks - whcih rocks the ship in orbit from an explosion on the ground shwoing that it was rather more powerful than usual (and im sure there are many other such incidents in trek).
I'll need to double check the episode.
Sigh Im not saying because its Tv its not trustworthy you... im saying because its a tv SHOW thats fiction, full of SFX and concessions to the viewer that you have to consider the source - I can't decide if you are an idiot for thinking thats what I meant or that you have met far to many idiots in your life to have such low expectations of people, care to share?
Creationists say raidometric dating is worthless because there have been a few (3%) results that were messed up.
Lunar landing skeptics claim the landings were faked because we see no stars in the photographs.
Holocaust denyers insist that because the evidence is not 100% perfect to their satisfaction, the whole thing must have never occured.
And you are doing the same thing just becasue the Enterprise looks brighter than it should.
Hello. We treat the shows as if they are documentary footage, but the recording media isn't perfect. As I said before, you are just Gothmog with out the legalese. His arguments were crap then and they are now.
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Post by TheDarkling »

The man was insane yes but he did cause an earthquake using a very small amount of it (enough to fit into a necklace - which was worn by an orion I believe), also I don't recall Kirk saying "you think im afraid, your off you head, that bottle won't do anything" althuogh it has beeen a while since I have seen the episode.

I'm not saying all of the footage is untrustworthy just that we must accept it isn't going to 100% accurate, you seem to be saying I'm saying that observation should be thrown out altogether im saying the footage isnt the gospel some people seem to think it is (subtle barb there just incase you don't pick up on it).

You do treat it as perfect since you seem to believe that when Riker tells us the distance is 40,000km but we don't see that, that Riker (and the entire bridge crew of he Klingon ship) is an idiot that doesn't know how the ship functions or even how to read a display (and the klingons have no ability to understand their ships).

Durandal:I thought editing wasn't allowed in this forum.
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Post by Darth Wong »

TheDarkling wrote:I'm not saying all of the footage is untrustworthy just that we must accept it isn't going to 100% accurate, you seem to be saying I'm saying that observation should be thrown out altogether im saying the footage isnt the gospel some people seem to think it is (subtle barb there just incase you don't pick up on it).
In real life, even scientific observations can be in error. Measuring equipment isn't perfect, people make mistakes, oddities happen. If they are not repeated, then they are considered outliers. If we apply the same method to sci-fi, then a scene which appears to be flawed may be considered an improperly collected measurement, ie- outlier. However, the bar is set pretty high to declare something an outlier. You can't just say that it contradicts your interpretations of dialogue or your expectations or the version of Star Trek you carry around in your head. You must show that it is grossly inconsistent with all other observations.

And therein lies the rub: Trek ships 10km apart are not an FX mistake. They are consistent. The inability to pulverize 2.5km wide asteroids with a single photorp is not an FX mistake; it is consistent. If it is consistent, this means it is repeatable and predictable. If it can be measured (as opposed to relying upon subjective interpretations of character dialogue and intent and frame of mind and all of that other bullshit you rely on), then it is objective. If it can be measured and it is predictable and repeatable, then it is reliable evidence.

Unfortunately, you have consistently shown that you refuse to allow the evidence to dictate the "reality" of Star Trek. Instead, you have your own notion of Star Trek's "reality" in your head, and you judge the evidence against that notion, rather than judging the notion against the evidence.

I reiterate: Star Trek fundie.
You do treat it as perfect since you seem to believe that when Riker tells us the distance is 40,000km but we don't see that, that Riker (and the entire bridge crew of he Klingon ship) is an idiot that doesn't know how the ship functions or even how to read a display (and the klingons have no ability to understand their ships).
There is no contradiction between visuals and dialogue in that scene. They could have been planning to use torps, which obviously have much longer effective range than direct-fire weapons. And we never did see the ship uncloak until well after they passed the 40,000km mark.

PS. I have mentioned numerous examples showing that short range is in both visuals AND dialogue. The Equinox. Redemption. Generations. Insurrection. All are consistent (dialogue vs visuals) and all show/describe short ranges. By the way, here's a clip from TDiC. Enjoy.
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Post by Darth Wong »

Durandal wrote:Again, sorry about that, but the edit and delete buttons aren't showing up for me. It's rather irritating.
I fixed it for you.
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Post by TheDarkling »

Darth Wong: I said I have no objection to short combat ranges being the norm I simply had a problem with that incident being used to show Riker couldn't count.
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Post by Grand Admiral Thrawn »

Galaxy wrote:
You use the 64-MT photorp TM figure as a given and plug it into your equation, even though the figure is directly contradicted by numerous incidents such as "Pegasus".
Could someone name all those numerous incidents that contradict 64MT torps?

Pegasus isn't a good example to derive a energy estimate. There's no mention of how many torps the enterprise was carrying at the time, and i don't recall them shooting any torps at the asteroid to prove Riker's comment.
I think everyone just filled in the missing pieces of the equation with assumptions.

The E-D has a complement of 250 torpedoes. Even using 100 torpedoes brings it to 20 megatons max.
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Post by Master of Ossus »

TheDarkling wrote:Darth Wong: I said I have no objection to short combat ranges being the norm I simply had a problem with that incident being used to show Riker couldn't count.
What do you think that Riker's problem in that particular incident was caused by, if it wasn't caused by human error?
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Post by TheDarkling »

Well it wouldn't have just been Riker but the entire Klingon bridge crew, the Enterprise bridge crew and chief O'Brien.

However upon reviewing the episode their isn't any problem because there is ample time for Riker to have closed the distance before we see the ship decloak.
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Post by Robert Walper »

Ted C wrote:
Ender wrote:I don't suppose there is any cahnce of this getting back on topic?
I was personally hoping for some comments on my rather lengthy response to the initial question...
Sorry about that there Ted C, I very much wanted to make a response to your submission(some excellent points), but as you may or my not already know, I posted that my internet connection is extremely unreliable right now. I was able to get this originial post out, but since then my internet has crashed again, my time is again limited since I must use another's computer to peek in on SD.net, therefore any length of posting is limited on my part. My only option is to copy the entire post, stick it on disk and get it back to my own computer to respond to..but it's a little impractical... :x
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Post by Galaxy »

Pegasus doesn't hold any solid information, so it's not an accurate way of determining torpedo strength.
If the episode actually stated the size and composition of the asteroid and a specified number of torpedoes to destroy it, THEN you could get an accurate estimate. But since that information isn't available, i'm tired of people using that scene, and ONLY that scene to calculate torpedo strength.
There's other (more clear) examples that i wish people would examine.
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Post by Kamakazie Sith »

Galaxy wrote:Pegasus doesn't hold any solid information, so it's not an accurate way of determining torpedo strength.
If the episode actually stated the size and composition of the asteroid and a specified number of torpedoes to destroy it, THEN you could get an accurate estimate. But since that information isn't available, i'm tired of people using that scene, and ONLY that scene to calculate torpedo strength.
There's other (more clear) examples that i wish people would examine.
Then you should probably name them ;)
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Post by SPOOFE »

If the episode actually stated the size and composition of the asteroid and a specified number of torpedoes to destroy it, THEN you could get an accurate estimate. But since that information isn't available, i'm tired of people using that scene, and ONLY that scene to calculate torpedo strength.
What is unclear? We know the maximum density that the asteroid could reasonably have. We can derive an upper limit as to its size. The phrase "entire torpedo complement" is very specifc and unambiguous.

Are you saying that you won't accept anything short of a crewman saying, "Captain Picard, as you well know, our photon torpedoes have a yield of 14.984790202793472917324670913274 megatons"?
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Post by Lord of the Farce »

Kamakazie Sith wrote:
Galaxy wrote:There's other (more clear) examples that i wish people would examine.
Then you should probably name them ;)
This should be interesting... :twisted:
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Post by SPOOFE »

BUT, I'll play your game, so let's take your apparent desire for a bass-ackwards approach to the situation: Let's assume that photon torpedos ARE 64 megatons a pop. So now we're left with Riker's quote meaning, essentially, "It would take more than 17.5 gigatons to destroy that asteroid" (the yield of 275 photorps at 64 megatons a pop). That would mean that the asteroid is about 26 kilometers in diameter... and that's a low-end, considering that's the "Fragmentation" energy (I'm using Wong's asteroid destruction calculator, by the way).

For simple "Cratering" energy, you get an asteroid that's 46 kilometers in diameter. "Cratering" would easily result in the destruction of the asteroid, which was what the Enterprise wanted to accomplish. Although I guess you can try to argue that the asteroid was of an iron composition... although such an asteroid would look reddish-gray instead of diarrhea-brown.

And, finally, if we look at the energy needed simply to break its gravitational binding - that is, to break up the asteroid - the entire torpedo complement (at 64 megatons per torp) would break apart an asteroid that's 57 kilometers in diameter. Such a size, obviously, would be daunting, but wouldn't be so much so that they wouldn't at least consider attempted destruction a viable possibility. Yet they dismissed the notion instantly, without even a second's consideration... clearly, if photon torpedoes had a yield of 64 megatons, then that asteroid would have to have been significantly larger than 57 kilometers wide in order to make Picard, Riker, et al completely ignore the possibility of its destruction.

57 kilometers.

I have a hard time accepting 10 kilometers as a high-end diameter for that asteroid. But 57? No sirree. Even if we assume that only a quarter of a photorp's energy hits its target (odd, since it's supposed to be a directed weapon, isn't it?), that still leaves us with an asteroid that is at least 43 kilometers in diameter.
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Post by SPOOFE »

Obviously, my above reply was to Galaxy.

But here's another thought I have... if we want to assume 64 megaton torps, then I CAN use that as just another piece of evidence for my "combat anti-matter" theory... that a given Starfleet ship only carries enough antimatter to be used in only a fraction of its torpedoes, on the assumption that some torpedoes may be used as probes, or not entirely filled with reactant.

Makes sense, in my opinion: It's unlikely that a starship would ever need to use all of its torpedoes in a single skirmish, and for safety reasons they'd want to have as little antimatter aboard their vessels as possible. It also explains how newer ships such as the Akira and "War Galaxy" can be so much more powerful... just give 'em more antimatter to use in their missiles, and they can deal more damage in a prolonged battle.
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