| about those ballpark figures |
| The kinetic energy equation corrected for relativistic mass increase is: KE=mc^2[{1/(SQRT 1-v2/c2)}-1] To propell a 500,000 tons ship up to 0.5c actually takes 7E24j For the sake of expedience I made calculations on previous pages using KE=0.5mV2 and stated 5.625E24j, so relativity does make a difference, but hey, this is not the JBIS! If a ship is deflected with a velocity increment of 0.12c then the energy required is actually 3.275E23j or just 4.68% as much energy as needed to propell the ship up to 0.5c, so things would look even better if I made all the calculations using the relativistic equation. |
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| In the case below, it takes 3.1E24j to accelerat the ship by 0.353c and that's only 44.2% as much energy as needed to propell ship to 0.5c rather than 50%! And it only takes 16.7% as much energy to induce the 0.2236c deflection rather than 20%! |
| So everything on the previous pages about beamriding interstellar shuttles is a bit off, but the picture looks better. It will take more energy to accel/decel the pods than I indicated but they aren't that massive. The system makes sense. Readers who want to play around with this more can have at it! If someone comes up with 3D star maps and designs routes through the galaxy that would really be cool. Calculating the deflections in three dimensions will be complex and yeild different numbers, especially if the mag-sails are less efficient (?) when catching beams at an angle. I'm just tossing out the ball. If you're way ahead of me on this, I'd like to see your work after you get your graduate degree or get your work published in a highly respected journal! |
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