'The isoton'

[Vympel]

Ok so what exactly is this term; it doesn't appear in any SI unit lists; because iso means equal some have taken it to mean 1, what is the basis for this again?

[Darik Sdair]

To the best of my knowledge, the Iso- prefix is used in the metric system to specify a "x1" multiplier. Iso, Deca, Hecto, Kilo, etc...

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

"Iso" is equal. I once made a stupid mistake of asking Wong about it (I never got a reply to that one,) then I learned about prefixes.

The word does not exist in a dictionary, but that doesn't mean it has no basis. Think about it, if "iso" means "equal" and ton is a unit of mass, then isoton as put together means "equal to ton." What's the thing that is "equal to ton?"

One ton. And for weapons yields, a "ton" turns from a unit of mass to a standardized unit of energy that is an approximation of what a "ton" of TNT produces - 4.186E9J/ton.

It is logical. But it is redundant, so a new meaning has been pasted to some. For instance, using the standard prefix suffix, "isobar" (bar being a unit for pressure) should have meant "equal to bar" or "one of bar," which SHOULD be 1000mB. But then they apparently decided that to turn "bar" into "pressure" and call same pressures "isobar."

However, no such override exists in this case. Even if it does, the term only becomes useless to both sides, because we've lost the only clear reference we know.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Well, what do they use it for in Star Trek?

[Setesh]

Isoton = 1 ton. they use isoton because it sounds more high tech and futuristic. As a plus they thought the fans would be to numbed by technobabble to look it up

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Yeah, pretty much. Iso means "times one" in SI. I think it's just not commonly identified.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

So when they refer to an "83 isoton warhead", they mean it masses 83 tons?

[Setesh]

yup

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Dumb, ain't it?

[Alyeska]

So when they refer to an "83 isoton warhead", they mean it masses 83 tons?

Incorrect.

Taken directly from the ST:E

[qoute]Isoton
Unit of measure for mass. Also used to describe power of an explossive device. [snip] Isoton, invented by Star Trek science consultant Andre Bormanis is another one of those terms that we may never define percisely[/qoute]

We know that Photon Torpedoes do not weigh 83 tons. We know they are refering to a firepower yield. We know that the Star Trek use of the term Isoton is not the literal meaning. We also have plenty of examples of firepower MUCH greater then literal meaning of Isoton.

[Moonstone Spider]

[Inflamed Trekkie]
No no, you're all wrong. An Isoton is millions of Yottatons. You see, in the future their firepower is so much higher than modern day they needed new prefixes. It goes like this with them:
Kilo
Mega
Giga
Tera
Peta
Exa
Yotta (Note: The amount of punishment Yoda dishes out per second when fighting Sith)
Pala
Okra
Bunra
Moonstona
Spidera
Iso

So, 1 Isoton equals 100,000,000,000,000 Yottatons. I should think this is obvious to anybody, in fact I'm going to put this in my fanfic right now so that it's canon.[/Inflamed Trekkie]

[LMSx]

....According to Wong's page on scientific constants, the scale goes

iso
kilo
mega
giga
tera
peta
yotta

etc.

So one isoton would be 1/1000th of a kiloton. Am I wrong?

[Raxmei]

I had the dumb idea a while back that for what an isoton might be.

Back in the 20th century, people based explosive yield measurements off of tons of TNT. Centuries after TNT fell out of use, people stopped using this archaic measurement and based their yields off of something more fundamental. Rest energy.
Under this new measurement, one kilogram produces 9E16 joules. One metric ton produces 1000 times as much. To prevent confusion with the previous units, these new tons were called isotons. This makes a bit of sense, since a 1 isoton explosive liberates exactly 1 ton of energy. Since modern heavy weapons now use antimatter warheads, use of isotons allows easy conversion between explosive mass and yield.

This is purely speculation, of course.

[Robert Walper]

If we were to go by the DS9 technical manual(from what I've heard, I don't have it), Fed torpedoes are given 1.5kilograms of matter and anti-matter. Wong calculated a raw/perfect yield as 64megatons. The torpedoes are also, in the same manual, referred to as "25 isotons". Therefore, one isoton would be equvilent to 2.56 megatons (64/25=2.56).

[Raxmei]

How many joules are in a megaton? Preliminary calculations bring DS9 tech manual isotons within an order of magnitude of my isotons, but I need a more trustworthy conversion factor.

[Raxmei]

Now that I look closer, those calculations must have a major mistake somewhere. 15 kilograms is nowhere near 25 tons.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

If you accept his premises. His premise is that isoton is not a two part word like we think, but a single word that has yet to be defined, without any guidelines. Then he assumes the TM is valid (it apparently isn't, but let's go with it THIS TIME.

He merely divided the estimated yield of the weapon in megatons into the number of isotons the book says it has. Do that, and there is no problem.

IF you accept his premises.

[Doomriser]

So when they refer to an "83 isoton warhead", they mean it masses 83 tons?

Incorrect.

Taken directly from the ST:E

Non-canon, and therefore worthless.

[Doomriser]

If we were to go by the DS9 technical manual(from what I've heard, I don't have it), Fed torpedoes are given 1.5kilograms of matter and anti-matter. Wong calculated a raw/perfect yield as 64megatons. The torpedoes are also, in the same manual, referred to as "25 isotons". Therefore, one isoton would be equvilent to 2.56 megatons (64/25=2.56).

Besides the TM being non-canon, the actual yield of a photorp maxes out at 48 MT as a result of inefficiencies. You'll have to account for that, otherwise 2.56 MT will be an optimistic, unacheivable figure.

[Master of Ossus]

If we were to go by the DS9 technical manual(from what I've heard, I don't have it), Fed torpedoes are given 1.5kilograms of matter and anti-matter. Wong calculated a raw/perfect yield as 64megatons. The torpedoes are also, in the same manual, referred to as "25 isotons". Therefore, one isoton would be equvilent to 2.56 megatons (64/25=2.56).

Besides the TM being non-canon, the actual yield of a photorp maxes out at 48 MT as a result of inefficiencies. You'll have to account for that, otherwise 2.56 MT will be an optimistic, unacheivable figure.

So? It's an upper-limit, just like all of his other calculations for ST are upper limits.

[Lord of the Farce]

How many joules are in a megaton? Preliminary calculations bring DS9 tech manual isotons within an order of magnitude of my isotons, but I need a more trustworthy conversion factor.

If http://www.convert-me.com/ is correct, then:
1,000,000 ton of TNT = 4184,000,000,000,000 joules
or
1 megaton = 4,184 terajoules

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Some Trekkies used the quote "What's she going to do with an 83 isoton warhead? Blow up a small planet?" as proof that the Federation has planet-destroying . I thought of it a different way. I think that such a warhead is powerful compared with other Federation weapons, and "Destreoy a small planet" was sarcasm, mocking the weapon's comparitive power.

Robert Walper's 1 isoton= 2.56 megatons would mean that an 83 isoton warhead would have a 212 megaton yield. That is more powerful than the torpedoes on the E-D, but hardly a planet killer. However, that figure as tken from the TM, which is non-canon.

If Trekkies want to give Federation weapons the highest power possible, they should say it masses 83 tons.

[Setesh]

Sucks to be a trekkie then:
The 200 gigaton turbolaser blast =836800000 terajoules or 836800000000000000000 joules

Wongs lower limit 200 megaton LTL blast = 836800 terajoules or 836800000000000000 joules

[Vertigo1]

Smi: You got the quote wrong.

Its "What's the captain going to do with an 83 isoton warhead, blow up a small moon?"

Tuvok then basically tells him to quit asking too many questions and do his job in not so many words.

"The Omega Incident" being the episode in question for those that don't know.

[Smalleyjedi]

hmmm.....assuming that heavy TL batteries on an ISD are 500 gigatons, since a transport has 200 gigatons, then the energy of a singl shot would be 2.093E21 Joules. Using a shot every two seconds, the energy output of each battery would be 1.0465E21 Watts. I believe i did that right. 4.186E9 joules per ton, Watts=Joules/Seconds. Thats over a thousand Yottawatts, two thousand yottajoules. Powerful, but less powerful than some calculated values on Wong's site.