[SS] Reigning in Projectile Damage

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I think he was using "energy" in a literal sense: Ten pounds of boom-brick has half the Joules released than a 20-lb. boom-brick.

How that translates to GURPS damage is obviously the next step, but I don't think he was taking that step in his post at that instant.

Yes, exactly. At that step I was talking about the real-world energy released, which is directly proportionale to the equivalent TNT mass. If my own math / reasoning skills were better, I might have been able to jump directly from there (GURPS damage equal to cube root of real-world energy; energy diminished by square of distance) to the final formula (damage at range equals base damage divided by the two-thirds power of range). As it is, I had to work indirectly: energy diminishes by square of distance, so the TNT mass equivalent is divided by distance squared; compute damage-at-range based on new TNT mass equivalent.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It's the important step and particularly since he was talking about nukes where even "generic energy" is not proportional to the mass of the whole bomb. It might be proportional to the mass of the actively fissioning/fusing material but not the initiators and casing.

Again, I'm not talking about the mass of the warhead, but about the yield of the warhead in equivalent TNT mass.