Re: Concept: mass and mass

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