>Displacement = mass in tons (since you are "displacing" that many tons in
>water).
Displacement is measured in tons of *water* for modern day naval vessels,
but in Traveller, displacement (High Guard "displacement" and MegaTraveller
UCP code) is measured in tons of *hydrogen* displaced. The two scales are
*very* dissimilar, as water masses 9 times as much as hydrogen (MW H2 is
roughly 2 g/mol; MW H20 is about 18.1 g/mol)....
>Broadsword (NATO) frigate 3,500 tons (4,400 full load)
* 9 = 39,600 tons of hydrogen
>Los Angeles class attack submarine 6,900 tons (dived)
* 9 = 62,100 tons of hydrogen
>Nimitz class aircraft carrier 91,000 tons (full load)
* 9 = 819,000 tons of hydrogen
>USS Enterprise is supposed to be 190,000 tons...that's two Nimitz class
>carriers. Since the Enterprise does not have to dedicate so much of its
>internal space and mass to flight hangers, maintenance equipment, etc.,
>it might be better to call her 4 Iowa class battlships (they're about
>45,000 tons, as I recall).
Well... it might be better still to call her three Los Angeles-class subs.
However, as you can see, ships today come out much heavier in Traveller
"tons" than their size would seem to indicate. The reason is that "classic"
Traveller displacement calculations were based on pure volume rather than
actual hydrogen displacement. If you want an *accurate* comparison between,
say, the NIMITZ, the ENTERPRISE, and the AZHANTI HIGH LIGHTNING, take the
deck plans of all three ships and convert their respective volumes into
kiloliters. One traditional Traveller "ton" in the sense you're used to
thinking about it is the equivalent of 13.5 kiloliters.
The ENTERPRISE is *NOT* twice the size of the NIMITZ. If you want a very
simple argument for this, take the LOA, beam, and "draft" (extended from the
keel to the flight deck for the NIMITZ and from the bottom of the secondary
hull to the top of the warp engines for the ENTERPRISE) of both ships, then
consider that the NIMITZ is almost a monolithic block (configuration 4)
whereas the ENTERPRISE is a dispersed structure (configuration 7)....
- -- Palmer Davis --
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