Re: Concept: mass and mass

[agoodall@xxxxxxx]

John wrote:

> Errors can be as large as 100 % on the small ships
> (SC, CT), DDs are more than likely around 16%.

This whole "ship mass based on figure mass" is interesting, but as has been pointed out there is room for error.

What I thought might be interesting is not to weigh the figures, but calculate their volume. If you assume that they are made of the same material all the figures should be the same density, as long as there were no air bubbles in the figure. Since the ships of the same class are made from the same moulds, then ships of the same class should have the same volume. Irregularities in casting would make for less of a volume difference than the irregularities you'd see in weights. If you have an old ship from Geo-Hex and a new ship of the same class from GZG, they should have the same volume even if one of the ships was made from a lighter, more pewter, material than the other.

Since density = mass / volume, and we are assuming all ships have the same density, you could compare figure volumes to figure volumes in order to calculate the mass of the real "starship".

The trick, of course, is measuring volume. I remember a special cup in science class. It had a spout near the top that tunneled into the side of the cup. You filled it with water and let it settle so that the water level was just at the bottom of the spout. You carefully put in the object and captured the water that ran out the spout. You measured the water for the volume of the object. Of course this only works with items that will sink, and not everyone has one of these special beakers and an accurate enough volume measurer to do this...

--
Allan Goodall              agoodall@att.net
http://www.hyperbear.com   agoodall@hyperbear.com