mechs: possibilities, thoughts, discussion

Fr0stbyte124 · Post by **Fr0stbyte124** » Fri 17 Mar, 2006 11:12 pm

Seemed to me more like it was shuffling its feet in place, and nearly toppling over in the process. Still, maybe it will be more graceful further on in the design process.

DigiTan · Post by **DigiTan** » Sat 18 Mar, 2006 1:28 am

Yeah, large bots have the same proportionality problem as the giant ants we were bugging about earlier. Plus, since hydraulics run on the Pascal principal of surface area, it really effects movement too. They're making some great...strides in fast bipedal bots that stand a few feet tall. 'Will interesting to see where the neogen project goes.

Going back to plasmas, our EMag teacher was talking about plasma reators. You accelerate electrons with charged plates or a coil and they bombard a gas to create the plasma. He just mentioned the basics; I guess the math behind it would've led to a lot of exploding heads. And bloody carpet is bad for recruiting.

necro · Post by **necro** » Sun 19 Mar, 2006 4:36 am

hmmm, just a thought, but couldn't you sink a navy ship by expanding a gas under it? I now that bubling water can sink ships (via the discovery channel

), so how much gas would it take to sink a big ship like a carrier...and would it be hard to do so?

DigiTan · Post by **DigiTan** » Sun 19 Mar, 2006 11:21 pm

Good question. I guess you were hearing about the bubble jet effect that naval mines use. As far as know, its done by blasting water which causes a low-pressure gap to form, and then collapse on itself. That tends to rattle a ship apart, but I guess if a gas could displace enough water, it also could sink it. At least momentarily.

CompWiz · Post by **CompWiz** » Mon 20 Mar, 2006 12:04 am

Hmm, I remember an old Hardy Boys mystery book that was based on that. Except it was that seaplanes were sinking when landing over some underwater out-gassing.

I'm surprised that I remember a book I read at least 7 years ago, seeing as how I read so many. Maybe my memory isn't as bad as I thought.

Well, logically, what do you think is heavier for the same volume: Water, or some water and some gas? Obviously the gas is less dense than water, and therefore would make water with bubbles in it weigh less. An object would need to displace more(sink lower) water to counteract its weight and reach its floating point. But I would think it would take a huge amount of gas in the water to be able to sink a huge battleship. They tend to ride pretty high in the water to begin with.

necro · Post by **necro** » Mon 20 Mar, 2006 4:40 am

take a low profile ship, put an air pump on it, snake air cables under the target ship, buble them to death. Air compressors can displace incridible sums of gas, and for large targets...well, mobilise sevral of your boats. The thing is, nobody on it would survive...the boat would sink, the people would drown, life boats would fail. It would be a slaughter. As far as air superiority, floating mines could be made that expand with hydrogen made from converting water by means of electrical current from a long power cable/anchor and bristle with electronic sensors that would trigger the device. Free floating gyroscopicaly balanced mines could be achieved by means of vacume chamber and cary some small explosive charge or such or possibly just signal for a barage of guided anti air missles and be powered by means of solar power.

DigiTan · Post by **DigiTan** » Tue 21 Mar, 2006 2:12 am

necro wrote:floating mines could be made that expand with hydrogen made from converting water by means of electrical current

It takes 64,848 Coulombs to electrolyze water to get 3 moles of hydrogen+oxygen gas. 1 mole of water = 18 milliliters; 1 mililiter water = 1.10x10^-6 tons. A carrier weighing 35,000 tons will also displace 35,000 tons of seawater. Air is about 800 times less dense than sea water at room temperature, so we generate 35,000/800 'tons' gas for (assured) sinkage...

35,000/800 tons water = 3,977,272 mL water
3,977,272 mL water = 220,959 moles water
220,959 moles water <-> 220,959 moles gas
220,959 moles gas = 4,776,249,744 Coubombs
1 Amp = 1 Coulombs / second...

If the system ran at 110V and needed to sink the ship in 60 seconds, you would need to generate 80 million amps...or 9 trillion watts power. The power of four Hover Dams.

thecheat · Post by **thecheat** » Tue 21 Mar, 2006 2:07 pm

and besides, why wouldn't you just light that hydrogen? I'm sure that would make a much more... impressive... effect.

CompWiz · Post by **CompWiz** » Tue 21 Mar, 2006 3:02 pm

thecheat wrote:and besides, why wouldn't you just light that hydrogen? I'm sure that would make a much more... impressive... effect.

like exploding a nuke rather than letting radiation slowly kill someone

DigiTan · Post by **DigiTan** » Wed 22 Mar, 2006 3:20 am

I'm still trying to comprehend what 9 trillion watts would do to seawater. Whatever happens, there'd be one hell of a light show. Reminds me of that Philidelpha experiment rumor. Like in the Red Alert games.

necro · Post by **necro** » Thu 23 Mar, 2006 5:05 am

Um, the mine idea is not compatible with the compressor idea...the mines would just float there and would be fixed with some amount of conventional explosives such as C4 and would be voliatile to colide with. Mechanical air compressers powered by either hydro-carbon fossil fuels or by means of battery and/or generator would be capable of sinking a ship, asuming you had enough of them. Or you could ingite sums of oxidizers such as peroxide to create large expanses of rising gas and death.

Also, is plain Hydrogen used in thermo-nuclears or is it that fancy nuetron carrying hydrogen like I find my self thinking it is?

Spengo · Post by **Spengo** » Fri 24 Mar, 2006 1:19 am

How's this

movie
*spengo wants* @_@