On 14/01/15 18:47, David Shaw wrote:
> I have never attempted relativistic calculations before and wondered if
> I have this right.
>
> I am currently reading John Ringo's 'Gust Front' in which a ground based
> anti-starship weapon is described as firing bars of depleted uranium,
> 100mm in diameter and two metres long at a muzzle velocity of 0.3c.
>
> I make this a KE of 1.302 exa-Joules, equivalent to a touch over 311MT
> of TNT.  Is this right?  And would such a weapon system really be
> feasible within an Earth-standard atmosphere?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> David Shaw

Many thanks to all for the replies. So, the moral is, the 'science' is
more dramatic than factual.  At least he hasn't yet had his characters
try and solve the problem by reversing the polarity of the POTW(*) flux  :-)

David Shaw

(*)POTW - Particle Of The Week(TM)