[SS] Reigning in Projectile Damage

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

<shrug> Can't help you. I haven't read the article in question. I don't voluntarily do cube roots either.

In reality a nuclear explosion in vacuum is a very simple surface of an expanding (and hollow) sphere. The energy of a nuclear explosion at 50 yards is a sphere 2500x the aurface area of a sphere at 1 yard.

Ah, right. And because the energy of the explosion is proportional to the mass, that's equivalent to an explosion of 1/2500 the mass. For a 25kt nuke (dDam 6dx80) at 50 yards, the thermal burst is equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, roughly 6dx6 dDam (this is lower than the normal damage of 10 tons TNT because it's only counting the thermal energy, not the concussive blast). This is 7.5% of the initial damage, or a divisor of 13.3, which is conveniently 50^(2/3). My mind is fuzzy right now (d*** insomnia!) so I can't wrap my head around exactly why that correlation occurs, but it's about what I expected.

This progression (damage ÷ range^[2/3]) would only hold true for simple explosions like the thermal burst in a vacuum. I suspect it becomes far more complicated with shockwaves in a thick medium. I'm definitely not gonna tackle it right now... I've got the answer that I was really looking for, anyways.

Thanks everyone for your assistance and criticism! It really helped me put my thoughts in order, and led me to explore several new possibilities.