[TML] Tonnes, Tons and Tuns (long pedantic and possibly boring)

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 8/23/07 1:54 AM, "Garry Ward" wrote:

> More like discs; in the general number crunching I've been doing I've found
> so far is a ship shaped like a can of tuna provides the most drive aperture
> space vs mass. Still more number grinding to do, though.
> 
> Though, flying cans of tuna don't really look that impressive.

Exactly.  I just mentioned the shperoids & domes because Tuna Can is not a
standard traveller configuration.  :)



On 8/23/07 1:54 AM, shadow at shadowgard.com wrote:

> Also, the forces acting on structural members go up as the mass (and
> thus the cube) but *strength* goes by cross-sectional area. Thus
> walls, support members, etc have to get thicker by considerably more
> than the proportional increase.
> 
> That's why even though they have essentially the same skeletal
> structure (in terms of what bones and where they are located) an
> elephants bones are so different from a gazelle's.
> 
> Increase the ship's size enough and it'll have to be solid all the
> way thru top support its own weight under acceleration.

Yes, that's another aspect of the cube/square problem.  But remember,
skyscrapers are mostly empty space, little structure.  Granted, they're
designed for 1G only.  :)  Look at the fractal nature of the Eiffel Tower.