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[GZG] How much acceleration do you need to dodge beams and other weapons?

From: Tom B <kaladorn@g...>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:38:11 -0500
Subject: [GZG] How much acceleration do you need to dodge beams and other weapons?

Assertions:
- Universe with realistic vector movement (s(final) = 0.5 at^2 + vt +
s(init))
- Dodging beams means 'creating a probability cloud of location that
makes beam hits on your ship unlikely enough to justify FB beam
results' (and for other weapons, similar questions)
- No inertial compensators, human partical maximum acceleration
(sustained over a period) of at most about 6 Gs.

Now, before some among you pipe up, obviously this depends on your
assumptions about how many effective shots you can put out in a turn
(it may be your single resolution covers 1000 or 1000000 blasts) and
other factors.

I've looked at several time and distance scales and acceleration
assumptions to go with them to figure out how long a turn could
reasonably be at different distance scales. I'm aiming for short turn
lengths to justify a granular fire action and assuming thrust is
constant throughout the turn.

Scale A:
MU = 1000 km
Turn = 5 min
Thrust = 1 G per point (requires thrust 2 to get off normal 1 G planet
or thrust one with overthrust)

Scale B:
MU = 100 km
Turn = 3 min
Thrust = 0.33 G per point (requires thrust 4 to get off normal 1G
planet or thrust 3 with overthrust)

Scale C:
MU = 100 km
Turn = 2.5 min
Thrust = 0.5 G per point (requires thrust 3 to get off normal 1G
planet or thrust 2 with overthrust)

Scale D:
MU = 100 km
Turn = 90 sec
Thrust = 1 G per point (requires thrust 2 to get off normal 1 G planet
or thrust one with overthrust)

Scale E:
MU = 10 km
Turn = 1 min
Thrust = 0.33 G per point (requires thrust 4 to get off normal 1G
planet or thrust 3 with overthrust)

Scale F:
MU = 10 km
Turn = 45 sec
Thrust = 0.5 G per point (requires thrust 3 to get off normal 1G
planet or thrust 2 with overthrust)

Scale G:
MU = 10 km
Turn = 30 sec
Thrust = 1 G per point (requires thrust 2 to get off normal 1 G planet
or thrust one with overthrust)

Now.... given what we already know or suppose we might reasonably know
about systems that could grow into SMs, MTMs, fighters, beams, K-guns,
etc.....

What sort of MU scale do you really need to have to justify the
existing mechanics? (Yes, its an incompletely constrained question...
some latitude would be expected in formulating answers....)

I recall reading an article by Marc W. Miller (I think, or maybe Frank
Chadwick) in TNE's Brilliant Lances about the requirements to use
lasers in space. They concluded you'd require gravitic lensing to hit
anything at long ranges (1000 km+). I forget what they said migtht
actually be possible without gravitic control - less than 1000 km I
believe and less than 10,000 km for sure.

If we're operating with short (minute or less) turns and a 10 km = 1
MU model, is there any justification of missing with railguns, beams,
and SMs at ranges which will be no more than about 500 km?

Or if we're operating with turns of 1-3 minutes and a 100 km = 1 MU
model, does that justification for existing mechanics look good for
ranges of no more than 5000 km?

Or lastly, if our turns are 5 minutes and 1000km = 1 MU, do the
mechanics make sense?

I suspect the later case would be the most sensible. Maybe they are
all equally sensible. How big of a distance [or another way of looking
at it is how much travel time for medium fast (missiles and fighters),
very fast (railguns) or near instant (C beams and particle beams)] do
you need to grant some sort of reasonable miss chances as embodied in
the FT rules?

There is no right answer, but there is probably a few 'better' or
'more likely' answers and a few 'less likely' ones. It may be that
today, if we had working lasers, you couldn't dodge one at up to 500
kms with less than 30 Gs of acceleration, in which case there is no
model that could make this sensible without gravitic compensation or
very, very long ranges.... that's the sort of thing I'm curious about.

Thoughts?
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