His Divine Shadow:
A directed energy weapon such as a laser-cannon only releases a small fraction of it's towards the sides and the rest goes forward to eventually punch through the asteroid, it's the small amount of energy that the bolt has time to impart to it's surroundings that'll create the thermal stress, or plain vaporization, and the bolt has to be alot more energetic than a bomb to do so.Mostly Harmless:
True, unless the said laser-cannon bolt does not punch through asteroid. In which case (bolt stopped/depleted inside asteroid), all of it's energy will be released inside the asteroid.
Did Slave 1 bolts managed to punch through the asteroid?His Divine Shadow:
Yes, in places(sometimes it's hard to tell accurately, sometimes you only see a bolt go near an asteroid, or no bolt at all, ofcourse the true bolts are invisible), also seen in TESB with some asteroids.
But there are also impacts that where we can see them punching through.
But, even if the bolt stops inside an asteroid, it doesn't mean the energy will be released the way you claim to(omni-directionally), all the energy will still go forward, and only the vaporized material in there, and in the "tunnel" the bolt would have made, is going to transfer any energy to the rest of the asteroid, so you will not get anything near a bombs efficency.
And the beam/bolt would have to be rather weak in order to not be able to penetrate the asteroid, not enough to make it shatter I'd say.
Ofcourse using the visual "bolt's" is not a reliable way of measuring that either, since they're just a glow from an invisible bolt(that is probably STL) who's quanta is degenerating into light, we see many explosions and impacts that have no bolts or discernable source beyond the ship that is firing in such scenes, this occurs mostly in the preqeuels.Mostly Harmless:
So in other words:
1. If bolt (or beam) goes through asteroid, we have no clear way of measuring it's yield. It obviusly expended enough energy to melt/vape a tunnel inside it, and continued on with remaining energy.
2. If bolt (or beam) was stopped inside asteroid, however, it means that it was rather weak. It obviously did not have enough energy to vape/melt a tunnel (thus giving us upper limit to bolt/beam power). Furthermore, it has much less energy than omnidirectional energy release weapon (nuke), that could vape/melt entire asteroid. Here, superior energy delivery method of said bolt/beam works against it's total yield.
Conclusion: Given bolt/beam crossection, and maximum asteroid length, we can discern upper yield of laser bolt/beams - if it failed to penetrate through the asteroid, and if we treat it as directed energy weapon that releases nearly all energy to the front.
On the other side, succesful penetrations, in similar situation, give us minimum yield of laser bolt/beams.His Divine Shadow:
Originally posted by Mostly Harmless
1. If bolt (or beam) goes through asteroid, we have no clear way of measuring it's yield. It obviusly expended enough energy to melt/vape a tunnel inside it, and continued on with remaining energy.
No, there is a way, obviously, I don't know it though, but Saxton, and MW are two that does know the intricate mechanics of the situation and how to get yields.
So it is calculable, I'd reccomend directly asking one of the, prefferably MW on his forum.
2. If bolt (or beam) was stopped inside asteroid, however, it means that it was rather weak. It obviously did not have enough energy to vape/melt a tunnel (thus giving us upper limit to bolt/beam power). Furthermore, it has much less energy than omnidirectional energy release weapon (nuke), that could vape/melt entire asteroid. Here, superior energy delivery method of said bolt/beam works against it's total yield.
That might be it, I am not sure, the resulting explosion from the thermal stress might simply defocus the beam having it go in several directions, or just remove the visual bolt while the invisible one continues still(explanation that is my preference given invisible bolts being proven to exist).
Conclusion: Given bolt/beam crossection, and maximum asteroid length, we can discern upper yield of laser bolt/beams - if it failed to penetrate through the asteroid, and if we treat it as directed energy weapon that releases nearly all energy to the front
It ought to release all the energy to a small point in the front of the beam, and the speed at which this is done, and how energetic will determine if the asteroid is pulverized or vaporized, so a powerfull beam could release it's energy into a small point of the asteroids surface and the resulting stress ought to shatter/vaporize it.
Hmmm, maybe it doesn't matter wheter it penetrates or not now that I think about it, agh, I am not sure, with your permission I'd like to reprint our discussion on SD.net and ask MW himself.
On the other side, succesful penetrations, in similar situation, give us minimum yield of laser bolt/beams
Ofcourse it is impossible to determine successfull penetration or not given the nature of the weapon.
So, the question is, does it matter wheter the beam/bolt punches through or not, and how does one calculate things like these? How does take into account thermal stress and such?