On 9/21/2019 4:24 AM, Richard Aiken wrote:
> In John Ringo's Troy Rising series, a system-wide array of mirrors is
> used to concentrate a fraction of solar output onto a single point,
> thus vaporizing entire ships. As conceived in the novels, this
> violates the physics of optical systems. However, if the sunlight were
> used to excite a sufficient quantity of lasing medium [specifically "a
> two-layer ceramic disk known as a Neodymium and Chromium co-doped YAG
> (yttrium aluminum garnet)"], you could potentially get such an effect.
> Given the incredible heat build-up involved, you'd need an ammo-belt
> of such disks.

Interesting.  Never really cared for Ringo, but it is an interesting idea.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
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“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me