Gravitational effects

A thread of 3 messages, 22 November 1990 to 27 November 1990, in the order they were sent.

#1835 Gravitational effects

> Paul Baughman writes ...
>
>Gravity for stopping lasers?  This would work for missles, maybe, via tidal
>effects, but not lasers.  The G-field would provide a doppler shift to the

Well, perhaps everything isn't exactly real-world scientific (like, let's
not get into physics flaming!) but you remember the Einstein experiment
that involved watching the sun eclipse a star, and they proved that gravity
had an effect on photons ... well ... the idea here is just to stop the
laser hitting properly - anything that deflects it by even a small amount
is good, as lasers have to hit parallel to a surface to do the most
damage.

Basically, the shields throw such a huge spanner in the works that if
they don't totally negate incoming weapons, they at least screw up the
aiming, detonation and so on ...

(Mind you, that's AOK for 1/2 man fighters, but how do they protect
 the Leviathan ships ? They're several kilometers long ... Hmmm ...)

        _____               ____  _               _   _
       (__ __) o  ______   (  __)( )_  ___  ___ _( )_( )_  ___   ______
      (____)  (_)(_)()(_)  (____)(_)_)(__=)(__=) (_)_(_)_)(___)_(_)()(_)
Jim Cheetham, [email removed], BRA01 0344 424842 x3121 (ITD 763 3121)
              *********************** - as from December 1990 onwards,
              use [email removed] due to corporate restructuring.
    #include <std/disclaimer.h> /* To keep the company lawyer happy */

#1840 Gravity vs. lasers

Jim Cheetham [email removed] writes:
>
> > Paul Baughman writes ...
> >
> >Gravity for stopping lasers?  This would work for missles, maybe, via tidal
> >effects, but not lasers.
>
> ...					you remember the Einstein experiment
> that involved watching the sun eclipse a star, and they proved that gravity
> had an effect on photons ... well ... the idea here is just to stop the
> laser hitting properly - anything that deflects it by even a small amount
> is good, as lasers have to hit parallel to a surface to do the most
> damage.

Quick reality check here; just how strong a gravitational field do you need
to have any useful effect on an incoming laser beam?  What effect is such a
field going to have on any mass in the vicinity?

"Captain, we stopped that pirate's lasers.  We also moved the third moon of
Regina out of its orbit.  I don't think we're very welcome here any more ..."

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#1860 Re: (1835) "Leviathan" ships

 In message 1835, [email removed] (Jim Cheetham) writes:
 >
 >...throw such a huge spanner in the works...

     I've seen this phrase before.  Never understood it, though.  What's
a "spanner?"

 >(Mind you, that's AOK for 1/2 man fighters, but how do they protect
 > the Leviathan ships? They're several kilometers long ... Hmmm ...)

     I had to look twice at this.  If "Leviathan" is being used as an
adjective, then okay.  If you mean the merchant ship from Adventure 4,
that's only 53.5 meters long (from the specs).

     Come to think of it, I've never heard of a ship several kilometers
long in Traveller.  Even the big ships from Supplement 9 aren't anywhere
near that big.  Have I missed something?


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     Brent

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[A spanner is a wrench with a handle and an adjusting screw so you can
use it on a wide range of bolt sizes.  In the states we call this a
"crescent wrench", or a "monkey wrench" (the latter refers to an
aggressively-toothed and levered version used by plumbers for turning
threaded pipe).  Imagine a large machine with gears and rods, etc.  (the
"works") then throw one of these wrenches into it (the "spanner") to get
caught on a gear...  There is also the joke played on new Navy recruits,
where they are asked to find a left-handed spanner -- all spanners are
usable by either hand! -- James]