Re: ADTDL page has lots of stuff on combat engineering

Peter spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> http://www.atsc-army.org/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/5-102/Appd.htm#s11
> 
> Some of it, all it probably, can be used in DSII or SGII. I was
intrigued
> by the Wire obstacle details.  1 Platoon hour to lay 300m of Satan's
> Slinky.

I'll go here later! Thanks.
 
> Now we just need some rules for how MF would work.  There are a lot of
web
> sites that talk about MF but they discuss it in terms of textiles and
> fishing rods. The two types I've seen are Nylon and Glass. I had
always
> assumed metal, but I guess it need not be.  If these are true
monomolecular
> filiaments, how is it that they are not terribly dangerous? Is it we
are
> wrong to assume that they are difficult to handle? Also, if they are
so
> good at cutting that even gravity offers enough force, how would you
store
> it?
> 
> I think that a tight, tripwire of MF is dangerous, but a loose thread
is
> not. Picking up a lose thread must not be dangerous and their ability
to
> cut through anything must be somewhat mythological (otherwise a
struggling
> fish would be able to easily dislodge a hook on the stuff - either the
hook
> would be cut or the fish would lose his jaw.)
> 
> If anyone finds a good website with information on MF post it here,
I'd
> like to consider adding it to a scenario.

1. Monofilament is not necessarily monofilament. A single filament 
may be more than one molecule wide. Monofilament I believe refers 
only to the fact it is extruded as one filament continuously. It is 
many molecules thick or we couldn't handle it. So what we are 
refering to is monomolecular wire which is one molecule thick. Yes it 
would cut through stuff easily. It might or might not break easily. 
How would you store it? on spools of superdense alloy (maybe 
microthin to keep the weight down) so that they don't let it 
penetrate/cut. Plus all molecules aren't the same width. I think 
'practical' monofilament wire might be 5 or 10 molecules thick. A 
hell of a lot stronger than 1 molecule I'd imagine, big enough to 
still be a problem to handle and really really sharp, but also big 
enough to be stored on some spools and deployed with equipment. 

Loose monofilament could probably be pushed aside with stuff woven 
from monofilament like gloves - then it wouldn't be sharp enough to 
cut the weave and let you handle it (but be gosh darned careful with 
it - in fact a weave bodysuit might be required to avoid random 
twists causing it to slice n' dice the engineer or gropos in 
question). 

Just some thoughts. 

Fascinating stuff really. 

Tom. 
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