Re: SCALE OF FT (LONGISH AND CONTAINS PHYSICS)

I sent the original message to Chris Smith, who isn't on the list (but
ought
to be) but DOES play FT. He's also got a strong math and science
background.
He responded with the following, which he allowed me to post on the
list:

Rather neat analysis.
My only comment is about the 13% light second range at 36".
This implies a round trip ping of 1/4 second. If I get pinged, I *know*
you
can't shoot me until at least 1/4 second later - time for a little
evasive
action!
In addition, ping-analyse-shoot could easily take some time, since the
batteries likely have to recharge. If this takes even 45 seconds,
suddenly
the odds don't look so good. (The firing and check could take *much*
longer,
since a torpedo would be likely limited to 30 km/s - that's a 1000
second
flight time, or about 13 minutes. Only one per turn!
As for recharge guns...
1) Charge the guns...		45 seconds
2) ping, ping, ping...		 5 seconds
4) fire and check hit status... 10 seconds
That's 1 minute - now I know why I want multiple guns. Each gun may only
get
19 shots per turn. If you add in evasive action (and don't forget the
basic
distance factor 36" = 36,000 km) actually getting a hit *per shot* could
be
quite difficult!

<<This is an interesting point. Are batteries single "tubes" or banks of
weapons? This could be used to explain why a beam weapon--essentially a
light speed, straight line weapon--only hits an unshielded weapon 50% of
the
time. I can see why Jon Tuffley never bothered with an official "scale."
-
Allan>>

Incidentally, this scale also approximates to 1mm = 41 km. This explains
why
accidental collisions just don't happen.