scientific technobubbles: the laser cannon

[digdug]

The 1M laser cannon in transcendence looks like a THEL or a COIL laser systems, with a pulsed beam of 1 sec or more.
By looking at a laser beam graphic in transcendence we can say that the lenght of the beam is approximately 1 ls, corresponding to around 300,000 Km.

The laser uses 1 MW: for 1 second the beam carries a total energy or 1 MJ

That's a lot, it's the equivalent of 238 g of TNT.

[Retroactive]

Good thinking, but I would say that 1 MJ is a little optimistic; remember that not all of the power being directed to the laser goes into the beam. Large lasers dissipated a lot of energy as heat and thus require even more power for refrigeration.

Since these lasers are being used on spacecraft, they're probably not COIL lasers; COIL lasers use liquid KOH and H202 and aren't suitable for use in low-gravity environments. My guess would be that they are meant to represent an all-gas design of some sort, possibly iodine or HF.

[omniaddict]

I've pointed out before that since the laser is made of light, it travels at the speed of light. We know that the range of the laser beam in the game is 60 Light seconds, so it whould take the beam 60 seconds to travel that far. Since it doesn't, we can assume that the game is played at a faster than normal time frame. That is, if the laser takes 2 seconds in the game to travel 60 LS, then we can guess that 1 real life second represents 30 seconds in the game (and in fact there is a variable in the xml code that governs this).

[Cardinal]

I've pointed out before that since the laser is made of light, it travels at the speed of light. We know that the range of the laser beam in the game is 60 Light seconds, so it whould take the beam 60 seconds to travel that far. Since it doesn't, we can assume that the game is played at a faster than normal time frame. That is, if the laser takes 2 seconds in the game to travel 60 LS, then we can guess that 1 real life second represents 30 seconds in the game (and in fact there is a variable in the xml code that governs this).

Start Transcendence.
Find a planet, have a laser equipped on your ship.
Measure the planet.
Shoot the laser across the length of the planet.
Measure the time it takes for the beam to travel from one point to the other.


I have done this profound experiment. Ha! The speed of light (or any electromagnetic radiation) in real life is 299,792,458 meters per second.

I found a planet in Transcendence. A big one. By lucky chance it turned out this planet was precisely 299,792,458 meters across.*

I fired my laser, and timed it. It took exactly one second for the laser beam to travel the length!

The speed of light in Transcendence is 100% totally accurate.

Moo hoo ha ha!




* For scale... Jupiters diameter is approx 142,800,000 meters. Earths Sun's diameter is 1,380,000,000 meters.

[evilbob]

1 real life second represents 30 seconds in the game (and in fact there is a variable in the xml code that governs this).

I'm pretty sure it's already been said that 1s real time is 50s game time.

[Yugi]

Large lasers dissipated a lot of energy as heat and thus require even more power for refrigeration.

Especially so in space, there being nothing to dissipate the heat to.

[Cardinal]

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Fre ... &From=News

"An airborne laser weapon dubbed the "long-range blowtorch" has the added benefit that the US could convincingly deny any involvement with the destruction it causes, say senior officials of the US Air Force (USAF).

"The 5.5-tonne ATL (advanced tactical laser) combines chlorine and hydrogen peroxide molecules to release energy, which is used in turn to stimulate iodine into releasing intense infra-red light."

[OddBob]

Start Transcendence.
Find a planet, have a laser equipped on your ship.
<snip>
The speed of light in Transcendence is 100% totally accurate.

Planets, ships and other objects are not drawn to scale. You didn't think your sapphire was sixty million meters long did you? The scale of the game is specifed in the XML and I believe it IS accurate as regards to the distances between planets and the speed of light.

[Cardinal]

Planets, ships and other objects are not drawn to scale. You didn't think your sapphire was sixty million meters long did you? The scale of the game is specifed in the XML and I believe it IS accurate as regards to the distances between planets and the speed of light.

Ah, you are trying to poke holes in my [obviously absurd] scientific method.

I put it to you that planets *are* drawn to scale, but the ships overhead display automatically magnifies objects of interest, ships and other objects of interest.

3D Transcendence clearly shows objects at accurate scale, but it is nigh impossible to measure the planets this way.