I field generators

[jtrainor]

I've always just assumed that MAs and so forth just opened firing ports for their beam cannons.

[CidHighwind]

With a bit of 'Star Trek logic', you could say the I-Field blocks all beams except the ones at the frequency used by the Mobile Armor itself. That is, assuming megaparticle weapons have a wavelength.

Or, conversely, you could also say that the I-Field was introduced in 1979 as a weapon-of-the-day, without that much thought put into it. There's some other pretty silly things only in one or a few episodes of the original series, like the Zock.

[Seraphic]

With a bit of 'Star Trek logic', you could say the I-Field blocks all beams except the ones at the frequency used by the Mobile Armor itself. That is, assuming megaparticle weapons have a wavelength.

...did you seriously want to throw quantum mechanics into this?? =/ Well, the megaparticles have to have a wavelength like any other moving particle.

wavelength = planck's constant/momentum

So the megaparticle's wavelength depends on its momentum, or one can also say it depends on the particle's speed.

I think the situation is somewhat too complex to have your entire beam bolt propogate through the I-field barrier. The megaparticles aren't all moving with the same momentum because some are at different speeds, and some travel at slightly different trajectories, and on top of that they are colliding into each other.

Just knowing the mechanism by which megaparticles are accelerated out of the barrel of a megaparticle cannon, I don't think the momentum of each and every particle can be controlled so well to perfectly make its way through the barrier. The engineering is just far too difficult and refined, and it'd be easier just to make a small opening in your own barrier instead.

And on top of all of that, we don't even know if the megaparticle can even assume the proper wavelength to be trasmitted. We also have no idea what the Minovsky particles inside the barrier are doing. It's something we need to know since they're the things deflecting the beam in the first place.

I don't think the I-field barrier was a sudden one-episode gimmick. And I think the physics behind it is too solid to call it silly.

[CidHighwind]

With a bit of 'Star Trek logic', you could say the I-Field blocks all beams except the ones at the frequency used by the Mobile Armor itself. That is, assuming megaparticle weapons have a wavelength.

...did you seriously want to throw quantum mechanics into this?? =/ Well, the megaparticles have to have a wavelength like any other moving particle.

wavelength = planck's constant/momentum

So the megaparticle's wavelength depends on its momentum, or one can also say it depends on the particle's speed.

I think the situation is somewhat too complex to have your entire beam bolt propogate through the I-field barrier. The megaparticles aren't all moving with the same momentum because some are at different speeds, and some travel at slightly different trajectories, and on top of that they are colliding into each other.

Just knowing the mechanism by which megaparticles are accelerated out of the barrel of a megaparticle cannon, I don't think the momentum of each and every particle can be controlled so well to perfectly make its way through the barrier. The engineering is just far too difficult and refined, and it'd be easier just to make a small opening in your own barrier instead.

And on top of all of that, we don't even know if the megaparticle can even assume the proper wavelength to be trasmitted. We also have no idea what the Minovsky particles inside the barrier are doing. It's something we need to know since they're the things deflecting the beam in the first place.

I don't think the I-field barrier was a sudden one-episode gimmick. And I think the physics behind it is too solid to call it silly.

Well, yeah, it just falls into the grey area of us not knowing exactly how the technology works when you look at it closely. This will happen with most good explainations you can come up with, because obviously, it doesnt exist yet.

But I still stand behind explanation #2. The actual episode introduces it as an I-Field, it supposed to deflect beam weaponry, it then deflects beam weaponry, and then no more details are give or needed at that point. Most of the actual details we reference today were thought up after the fact, when Gundam itself began to get popular enough for people to care. As you well know, most tech specs in that time are the notorious 'three times faster' type, rather than the details ones we have today. Even still, the I-Field continues to work as a one-way beam shield, which leads me to believe there simply wasnt that much thought put into at the time.

[Ryujin]

It should be noted that the Big Zam possesses two I-field generators which, depending on their positions on the main body & areas of coverage, offers us a number of ways in which its beam weapons can appear to pass through its active I-field barrier (but in actuality, don't) even as it deflects incoming fire.

[Duraham]

having absolutely no idea on how it actually works, I have a pet theory that the I-field actually repels the particles, which mean that any outgoing beam perpendicular to the field should be unaffected, or even sped up, hence reasoning why you can fire out of an I-field but not into it.

if you fire into an I-field, the beam gets repelled in the opposite direction (assuming it is fired perpendicular to the field). As a result, the middle portion of the beam experiences the highest repulsion (assuming the I-field is spherical in nature), and hence the beam "collapses" into itself, resulting in collision of particles within the beam, which causes the particles to spread out in all direction from the middle, forming the scatter effects often seen on screen.

slower beams (ie. BEAM 2 according to G generation games. think BIG BEAMS) have particles with higher mass, and hence experience less change in direction by the I-field due to their higher momentum and inertia, which means that their power is somewhat reduced by the I-field, but not totally torn apart by it.

[Seraphic]

At the macroscopic scale, a beam bolt VS I-field Barrier interaction should behave exactly like a physical collision. Their interaction is uniform for all directions, sides, and angles. In other words, it's pretty much exactly like a high-speed jet of water smashing into a brick wall. If you shoot the brick wall from different sides or angles, it still stops your jet of water no matter what you try, because the wall is solid. The jet of water doesn't "destroy itself" or anything like that. The jet of water just goes "SPLAT" on the brick wall because it is a fluid.

Yes, the beam bolt is a fluid.

PLEASE, no more comments about barriers only stopping beams from one side.

Larger beam bolts are not larger because its constituent mega particles are larger. They are larger because they contain more mega particles. The effect is still a higher total mass for the beam bolt, but making the physical distinction is important.

You're right about sufficiently powerful beams being able to break through I-field Barriers. If the force carried by the bolt is higher than the force opposing it (from the barrier) then the bolt should pierce the barrier, but with reduced energy.

Well, yeah, it just falls into the grey area of us not knowing exactly how the technology works when you look at it closely. This will happen with most good explainations you can come up with, because obviously, it doesnt exist yet.

lol, my point wasn't to try to figure out how a beam phases through an I-field barrier, but to say that this theory is a lot weaker than the other ones presented because it relies too much on information we don't have. Besides, there's not a lot of precedent for technology in Gundam that uses quantum mechanics. I recommend we stray away from that area if we can avoid it. >_>

I get the feeling I've given you a bit of a hostile welcome. Sorry about that. I hope you find your time at MT useful and interesting.

[Geoxile]

So basically...I'm still waiting for some sources on this material. I mean I can't be expected to believe everything everyone puts out think they're the most reasonable

[toysdream]

I'm with Geoxile on this, actually. None of the Japanese sources have ever explained how machines with I-field barriers are able to fire out, so all we have is fan speculation.

One thing to bear in mind, though, is that I-fields are pretty widely used to focus and direct outgoing beams. So-called "deflection type" mega particle cannons, like those installed in the White Base, use external I-fields for this purpose (see under "Mega Particle Cannons" in Gundam Century). Perhaps, then, the I-field that protects the Big Zam can do double duty as a mechanism for directing its own outgoing beams. But that seems like a tall order for something that's always animated as a simple sphere.

-- Mark

[Deathonator]

I always assumed that I-Field's where used in that way in sort of a barrel like configuration, like the I-Field would cover the chamber the beam is created in and only have an opening through to the barrel which was also lined in an I-Field which shaped the random explosion of Mega Particles up to a bolt... or something like that. That makes more sense to me then the Mega Particles actually firing THROUGH an I-Field, might just be me though.

[Geoxile]

Actually that would be interesting idea that I would like to wrap my mind around. The I-field contorts to the Megaparticle accelerator to allow the beam to fire while the majority of the I-field still surrounds the unit.

Still really sketchy, especially with animation.

[CidHighwind]

I get the feeling I've given you a bit of a hostile welcome. Sorry about that. I hope you find your time at MT useful and interesting.

No harm, no foul! I'm just doing what I do at every other forum. Just jumping into a conversation I find interesting, with what knowledge I have (or in this case, theories).

Although I'm liking the new idea of a barrier with fields that mover outward, countering inbound beams, but flowing along with outbound ones.