Re: FT: FB2 Preview - Obi Wan Tuffley

On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Thomas Anderson wrote:
> 
> > the trouble is, a ship's turning ability is not proportional to its
> > linear acceleration ability; longer (ie bigger) ships turn more
> > slowly.
> 
> For a ship with the same Mass and the same thrusters but longer, the
> improved torque should pretty much cancel the increased [moment of
> inertia]

that's what i thought the first time i looked at it; it turns out moment
of inertia scales with the *square* of length, so it doesn't cancel.

> (Hm. Angular
> inertia? Usually denoted "J" in the formulas <g> Don't remember the
> English term for it :-( ),

angular inertia is what it should be called; it's usually called moment
of
inertia, just to keep you on your toes. afaik, the usual abbreviation is
I, but this varies from person to person.

Tom