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I believe Hapsburg meant it to be in terms of 'tons of TNT', the same way they describe yields for nuclear weapons.



In Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula (that nifty E-mc^2 thing,...

When you do the conversion, mass is measured in kilograms, not grams. So it turns out that 5508 GT of energy is equivalent to about 256000 kg.

Assuming 100% efficiency, you'd need to fuse...

A mirror is no defence against a pulse laser. It's only a little better against a continuous wave laser.

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On another note, the real determinant in how effective a laser is is the power...

I don't know how you think a neutron beam is going to be blowing up entire stars. It's a matter of how much mass you're transferring, and chances are if you can transfer that much mass in a neutron...

Neutrons would be a good, convenient choice.

For the effects of a neutron beam, it might prove useful to read up on the effects of neutron radiation.

Neutral particles only have to worry about collisions. They can ignore the other stuff that ions are affected by, like electrostatic repulsion or magnetic fields. Not to say that a neutral particle...

I'd just fire neutral particles instead of charged ones and save a lot of trouble. Forget magnets: just use gravitic impellers.

Right. How about this then...

Take a WWII soldier with the Karabiner 98k. When the soldier fires the weapon he will experience a certain amount of recoil.

Next, take that same soldier and...

Ah, I see. No point trying to explain it to you, then.

Back in WWII, the German Karabiner 98k fired a 12.8 gram bullet (from the standard 7.92 mm x 57 mm round) at 755 m/s. So the momentum that the soldier had to deal with came out to something like...

Simple.

Find the momentum of each 15mm bullet. Comparing this value with modern weapons, you can get a rough idea how massive your troops need to be in order to handle the recoil, which in turn...

If you're going purely Roddenberry canon, it should be noted that there is some evidence to suggest that Roddenberry tried to decanonize TOS.

'Strict' Roddenberry canon may therefore only include...

Some thoughts on plausible future laser sidearms maybe found here. The original discussions are buried somewhere here (you'll need to do a search to dig them up.)

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And Hapsburg, I get the...

I assume that this Infinity Gauntlet is a reference from SW? As would be required by the OP.

Technically speaking, you are correct. If a ship, any ship, coasts long enough, eventually enough particles will strike it and slow it to a stop.

The question is just how long that will take, and...

During the 'cruise stage', the ship will indeed slow due to particles hitting the ramscoop itself (conservation of momentum and all), but it will not be significant. Space isn't nearly that dense.

During the first stage of the journey, you use the ramscoop to gather propellent for your engine to burn.

Once you reach cruise speed (second stage of the trip), you stop burning your engine and...

Ah. I see where you're coming from. I suppose it would not be inaccurate to say that those probes are nuclear powered after all.

The popular connotation be damned.

Space probes like Cassini use RTG 's to power and heat their equipment. RTG's aren't fission reactors in the sense that they take advantage of the energy released by the natural decay of the fuel,...

Ha! I figured out fstab early on. Good ol' vi and the command prompt.

What was really bad was trying to get Linux to jive with my LinkSys WMP54G.

Since my internet was over the wireless, I...

It could be that a planet's magnetic field does make it more difficult for an ion thruster to operate. (I can't really say, I don't know how to do the math.)

But if that is so, it would seem the...

Oh. 'Torch drive' is another term (or perhaps slang) for the 'fusion drive'.

Ion engine: high specific impulse, low thrust.

Chemical rocket: low specific impulse, high thrust.

Specific impulse tells you the fuel efficiency of the engine. (The higher, the more efficient...

Nah. Give the infantry an effective anti-vehicular weapon and nothing changes. Tactically, at least.

Perhaps not. Apparently, a pulsed laser can cause mechanical damage akin to a high power bullet through vapour expansion. It can be quite ugly.

Ultimately the problem isn't in the principle,...