Hi,
OOPS! Made an error...
the 1 ton 1 meter radius gyro has an energy of 1409.9 ktons (sorry)
Lets try a .1 meter gyro with a mass of 1 kg?
Well, that's much nicer... only 282 kg of TNT!
Centripetal acceleration at rim of gyro: 394.8 billion G's
Formula: 0.5*m*(2*r*Pi*1,000,000)^2
--------------------------- = energy of gyro in kilotons
1.4*10^13
Centripital Acceleration
Formula: (2*r*Pi*1,000,000)^2
-------------------
r
Where m is the mass of the gyro, the r is the radius.
Now, your going to turn a Battle ship with a 1 kilo gyro, and simultaneously
place a 282kg bomb at the center of the spinal mount, right alongside
the main structural members of the ship?
Frankly, the engineering problems of a gyro are much MUCH greater than the
possible computer control problems of balancing thrusters in such a manner
so that when you release the controls, an auto de-spin program runs to
stop your rotation.
Even the computer monitoring systems necessary for a gyro would dwarf the
computer systems needed to calculate the ship's torque and put a minus sign
in front of it!
Actually, one could get a better result out of a gyro, by decreasing
revolutions and increasing the mass of the gyro. But still you are
going to end up with a ship that will "wallow like a garbage scow next to
a warp driven starship..."
Think about the torque to turn a battleship, Approx 1,350,000 metric tons
of mass, with a lever arm of .1 meters...
lets say we have a spherical battleship 10 meters in diameter (a rediculously
small number we are after order of magnatude here...)
Thus, to rotate the ship at one meter per second we need to exert a force on the
gyro of 135,000,000 neutons (the equivalent weight of 13,500,000 metric tons)
with that same force, you could move the same mass at 10 G's.
Sorry Folks, unless you use a physics nullifier, it's no good.
Scott Kellogg
Put your hands on the computer screen and say:
"I BELIEVE in the Power of the HORDE!"