Reading the back of 6th adventure path I saw that Y'all used 2,000 megatons for the new ultranought class ship. That makes me so happy you are fixing the mass error for starships in the book!
Well that's it just wanted to say I like that! Anyone else got anything else to shout out to?
Doesn't megaton measure explosive power, and not weight or mass?
Definition of megaton: An explosive force equivalent to that of one million tons of TNT.
It's kind of like saying a car weighs 2000 volts, isn't it? Just makes no sense. It's the wrong unit of measure!
If this really did get printed, then I have even less faith in the designers to handle realistic calculations and measures now.
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Don't megaton measure explosive power, and not weight or mass?
Mega is a standard SI prefix.
exa E 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10^18)
peta P 1,000,000,000,000,000 (10^15)
tera T 1,000,000,000,000 (10^12)
giga G 1,000,000,000 (10^9)
mega M 1,000,000 (10^6)
kilo k 1,000 (10^3)
hecto h 100 (10^2)
deca da 10 (10^1)
(none) (none) 1 (10^0)
deci d 0.1 (10^−1)
centi c 0.01 (10^−2)
milli m 0.001 (10^−3)
micro μ 0.000,001 (10^−6)
nano n 0.000,000,001 (10^−9)
pico p 0.000,000,000,001 (10^−12)
femto f 0.000,000,000,000,001 (10^−15)
atto a 0.000,000,000,000,000,001 (10^−18)
One megaton is equivalent to a million tons. Therefore a 1 megaton bomb is equivalent to that mass of TNT in destructive power. Which is about 4,184,000 gigajoules.
Ooh and my favorite SI prefix yotta Y 10^24
The problem in the book was that the weight of the Large-Colossle ships was orders on magnitude away from realistic, about 1000 times.
Also when in space you usually don’t talk about weight, which is what the US ton measures. Weight is a measure of the effect of gravity on a given amount of mass. Mass is a measure of how much matter is found within a object. The SI for mass is kilogram (kg) and the tonnne or metric ton is 1000kg. The US ton or short ton, is 2000 pounds.
So technically The weight of your starship, the number in the book, would change for low and high gravity worlds every time you visit a new world! And would be effectively 0 in space! Arsenal
Megatons are often talked about in the real world when talking about explosions,We compare the size of an explosion to how much TNT would be required to make the same explosion. For nuclear weapons this works out to some number of millions of tons of TNT, Or some number of megatons of TNT.
The most powerful nuclear weapon in the US arsenal is a 1.2 megaton of TNT yield (Mt TNT). You could translate that to 1,200,000 tons of TNT or 2,400,000,000 pounds of TNT that’s 2.4 billion pounds of TNT. By way of comparison the bomd itself weight is about 2,400 pounds.
Oh, well, good! :)
I'll just call those boys at Webster and tell them they need to update their definitions. :D
Oh, well, good! :)
I'll just call those boys at Webster and tell them they need to update their definitions. :D
?? Those are the definitions of mass and weight?? Uh I think I missed something...or being overly pedantic, or missing a joke..hate it when that happens :)
?? Those are the definitions of mass and weight?? Uh I think I missed something...or being overly pedantic, or missing a joke..hate it when that happens :)Oh, well, good! :)
I'll just call those boys at Webster and tell them they need to update their definitions. :D
I was just teasing in my last post, but it all started when I looked up the definition and saw only one definition: the one I posted above.
There's no mention of mass or weight in the "megaton" definition insofar as I can tell. It's all about explosions.
Oh wow yah I just googled megaton and the auto definition is just “a unit of explosive power” lol....I can’t believe I am saying this but at least Wikipedia has it right!