monster wrote:The left side? It looks right in the center to me.
It looks like the left side to me. Those armor plates are the midsection pieces, and you can vaguely make out the front armor on the left side of the screen in the second shot.
Erisie wrote:The problem with that explanation is that it is not how antimatter works. Annihilation would happen immediately after the antimatter leaves its container. It wouldn't be able to travel enough to create a beam before encountering the first atmosphere molecules immediately in front of the Minerva.
I don't want to get too much into conjecture, but given the kind of technology (beam sabers), would it not be possible to isolate a pocket of vacuum at the front of the barrel?
Anyway, it's immaterial. You're talking like
all of the positrons would react with the air at once. It would be proportional to the number of electrons in the air molecules, so only a few annihilations would occur before the air was all destroyed or pushed out of the way, which isn't all that much energy release (I don't have math to back this up). Now, firing the Tannhauser underwater would be suicide, as water is much denser, is not compressible, and all that energy would not only release a ton of gamma ray photons (
way more electrons per volume in water), but also heat, resulting in a steam explosion.
Erisie wrote:From what I can see in the episode, both MS were close enough to the center of the explosion to have been obliterated by it.
That's not the same as 'point blank'. The MS weren't near the center of the blast, so they probably didn't experience any gamma rays. The resultant explosion was most likely caused by the energy release from the annhilations, which superheated the air and water resulting in rapid expansion. Destructive? Absolutely. But, given the suits were equipped with phase shift, I don't think it's all that hard to believe they survived.
Erisie wrote:For another example of practicality...
I think you are confusing 'possible' with 'practical'. Cost has to factor in to make something practical.
Erisie wrote:It is also possible that he was thinking of his own survival. Or that he was preventing a scenario like the one I'm presenting below. Speaking personally, and balancing his actions, I don't see Kira as this "noble good kid that is always doing good", especially in Destiny.
Of course it's possible he was thinking of his own survival. When the fight turned, he tried to kill Shinn because that was the only option he had. I'm not saying Kira is some saint, I'm saying he is a nice guy who cares about others. Given that he was already resigned to death, especially considering he probably thought the Archangel had been destroyed, it makes sense that he might use his last ounce of strength to do one last act of good will. I would, or at least I like to think I would.
Erisie wrote:It is my understanding that the reactors onboard CE's mobile suits are fusion, not fission. Thermonuclear reactors operate by keeping the heat of the reaction contained with extremely powerful magnets. It is technically possible turn the temperatures high enough inside the reactor to jury-rig a pure fusion weapon.
Negatory, they are fission. Hence the neutron jammers. Fission works by hitting fissile material with neutrons, which creates 'fissions'. More neutrons are released in the process, which makes the reaction sustain itself. Unregulated, it can quickly go out of control (prompt critical), which results in a meltdown, which is why they use materials that block or absorb neutrons to control the reaction (control rods). These kind of reactors can
never be used as a bomb.
Fusion reactors are a UC thing, and I hate to break it to you, but fusion explosions aren't possible in the way UC Gundam makes them out to be. An impressive explosion? Sure, but not one on a nuclear scale. It would be more fireworks than destruction.
Of course, UC Gundam also relies heavily on rainbow unicorn magic, so I guess the incorrect depiction of fusion is the least of their problems.
toysdream wrote:It occurs to me that the easiest way to prevent their reactors from exploding would be to disengage the N-Jammer Canceler, at which point the usual N-Jammer interference should suppress the fission reactions.
You are correct up to this point. Fission reactors cannot explode, at least not in the way a nuclear bomb does. A bomb is specifically engineered to have a ton of fissions happen all at once. This is usually done by some form of explosively induced implosion. The fissions that happen in reactors are far too slow to result in that kind of reaction, which is why they melt instead. As for explosions, the worst you could expect is something like Chernobyl, SL-1, or Fukushima. There were explosions, but they were caused by either a steam explosion, water hammer effect, or a build up of hydrogen, respectively.
Also, thanks for the info on Archangel. Any idea what powers it? I've always kind of wondered. Maybe some guy is shoveling coal - the real most important character in Gundam SEED.
toysdream wrote:On another note, while I was re-reading stuff about particle beam weapons, I noted some discussions of using lasers to create plasma. Essentially, when you shoot a laser through the air, it ionizes the air molecules and creates a "plasma channel" that you can then shoot electricity through, like an artificial lightning strike.
Since you can use laser beams to generate plasma, this raises the possibility that the "anti-ship laser swords" used in Gundam Seed may not actually use the laser beam to do the actual cutting; instead, they could use the laser beam to generate plasma along the blade edge. This would explain why they're animated the same way as regular beam sabers.
What you are talking about is an
Electrolaser
It's an electric shock weapon, so it would make for a good taser, but not an effective weapon for the same reason lightning isn't an effective weapon. Aircraft are hit by lightning all the time, and usually the worst damage is some burn marks where the lightning entered and left. And they only get hit because they get in the way of a strike - normally, if something isn't grounded you wouldn't be able to hit it with an electric shock. That's called an open circuit. Of course, positive lightning strikes are pretty scary, but I think a railgun is much, much scarier.
Also, that wouldn't work in a vacuum. No air to ionize to create the channel.
toysdream wrote:Also too! Since people were talking about the Strike Rouge kit manual (without specifying which kit in particular), I just took a look at the Perfect Grade series kit manuals. The PG Strike Rouge manual reiterates the usual explanation about how its beam sabers use the same magnetic field fixation technology developed for use with Mirage Colloid, but then goes on to add that beam sabers can't be used for traditional sword-against-sword blocking because the blades tend to "slip through" (すり抜ける). That's why CE mobile suits use anti-beam shields for blocking instead.
That was intriguing but vague. Is the manual saying that the saber blades literally pass through each other?
The PG Astray Red Frame kit manual is a bit more helpful. It specifically explains that beam sabers can't be used for locking swords using the
hilt guard (鍔追り合い), which is a standard sword-fighting technique in which the guard prevents the blade you're blocking from sliding over and cutting off all your fingers.
Thank you for providing some insight into all this.
I would think it's pretty obvious a hand guard wouldn't work on a beam saber, though. Slip through could easily be interpreted as that as well, as beam sabers are just tubes with a beam coming out. If you tried to lock with another saber, it would be very easy for the blade to slide downward and lop off something important. Like it was said before, using a shield instead might just be safer.
However, we still have multiple examples of sabers blocking one another, and at least one of sabers locked in a duel. These are from the HD Remaster, so the 'editing out' of the scenes doesn't apply.
domino wrote:If we depend on your understanding of the PG Astray Red Frame kit then it's not referring to the sabers literally passing through each other! It's indicating that rather than the beam sabers "locking" with each other when they clash, they sometimes just glance each other which would change the trajectory of the beam saber swing but not necessarily deflect it from causing any damage to the defending mobile suit. That is probably a reference to the magnetic fields sometimes not having opposite charges hence not repelling but also not attracting each other hence they glance/bounce off of each other.
Perhaps whether or not the beam sabers repel, attract or simply glance each other depends on the strength of the beam saber as well as the relative field strengths of each.
This does explain why an anti-beam shield would be a better defence since it'd effectively repel the beam saber (until the coating wears down)
Yeah, exactly this. Also, didn't Gato's overcharged saber break through Uraki's saber in 0083?
