Can you "Overload" a Laserwarhead?

Maldorian wrote:BUT: The Explosion had 15 Megatons! What happend? They used Lithium 6 as core fuel for the bomb, but they also add Lithium 7 to stabilize the Lithium 6. No one expected, that the Lithium 7 turned into Lithium 6 as the fusion reaction starts.

The comparison fails because the core fuel for a missile warhead is in one place and the fuel for the missile power supply reactor is in a different place, not combined as the Lithium in your example.

As was pointed out up-thread, there is a measurable time delay and some distance between the warhead and the missile body when the warhead detonates and the two fuel supplies would be on opposite sides of the grav lens that focuses the warhead on the lasing rods.

Depending on the exact distances and directions between lasing rods and missile body, the lasing rods may well have done their job and been destroyed before the residual blast front of the warhead reaches the missile fuel supply.

You can of course "overload" a lasing rod but I doubt you will increase the yield in any significant way.

If I remember correctly all bomb pumped laser uses the neutron wash from a nuclear explosion to excite light emission from a medium, the medium will be very short-lived for different reasons. The medium will heat up because of the excitation and the lasing properties will deteriorate rapidly. Then you have the nuclear explosions wave front that will quickly overtake the lasing medium and destroy it.

So you have a couple of variables to play with to optimize the output of a lasing media:

• Size of nuclear explosion
• The length of the effective neutron pulse
• Type and endurance of the lasing media
• The distance between the lasing media and the nuclear explosion

You tweak these so you get the laser impulse you want in yield and duration, but I doubt you have much of a hysteresis to play with for a given model of missile.

Maldorian wrote:I have seen some good suggestions till now.

Maybe I should add something to explain my question.

I saw a documentaion on TV about the biggest nuclear explosin of the United states of America. They engeneered a 5 Megaton bomb and tested it at the Bikini Atoll.

BUT: The Explosion had 15 Megatons! What happend? They used Lithium 6 as core fuel for the bomb, but they also add Lithium 7 to stabilize the Lithium 6. No one expected, that the Lithium 7 turned into Lithium 6 as the fusion reaction starts.

Grav lenses and filiamente are designed for a calculated size of Explosion. Is the Explosion bigger, can they still do their work or would they destroyed?

No. They just didn't remove the Lithium-7. They naturally occur mixed and it takes a fair amount of effort to separate them (although not nearly as hard as it is to separate U-235 from U-238.) They considered it easier to build the bomb bigger than expend that effort.

There's also the bomb, I forget which one, where they used U-238 for the casing. Oops--the neutron bombardment from the exploding fusion device caused the case to fission and greatly upped the yield.

Loren Pechtel wrote:There's also the bomb, I forget which one, where they used U-238 for the casing. Oops--the neutron bombardment from the exploding fusion device caused the case to fission and greatly upped the yield.

Lots of bombs use a depleted uranium radiation case. It's got a lot of useful properties including adding significantly to the yield. It's not light so it isn't used everywhere Iirc.

darrell wrote:Your thought experiment breaks down with... SNIP

Q: How are those insanely high Temps/Pressures contained?
A: In the Honorverse by a gravity bottle. In real life pre disapora it is contained by a magnetic bottle.

Gravitic.... SNIP

Your brilliant deduction breaks down based on Chapter 1 physics.

Q: What is Newtons second law?
A: For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, a force, be it magnetic, gravitic, or fluid pressure exerts an equal and OPPOSITE force on the structure HOLDING the device, or fluid pressure in question...

So, said structure must be massively strong.

Your second massive failure stems from the fact you believe materials instantly vaporize. Well not only do they not "instantly", they do not vaporize either. The wave front can go around the object just fine. Thus, the pressure vessel structure will act as not only a physical shield, but also a time delay for whatever does get through, whereas the edges will not act this way. Likewise part of the structure will be denser, or more material in a linear line which will also either shield forward more, or less along with creating an uneven TIME delay wave.

PS> One of the main reasons for the magnetic retention today, is to keep the PLASMA OFFFFFFFFFFFFFF the walls of the reactor vessel. If this was not done, it would MELT the reactor vessel... OOPPSSIIIEEESSSS.

Explosions in water are vastly more destructive why? Because they have a mass able to HOLD the wave front which creates a longer TIME, allowing greater heating, allowing greater evaporation, equaling far more matter being converted into a larger VOLUME which makes the secondary shock wave much greater. In space, none of these factors are true.

Relax wrote:

darrell wrote:Your thought experiment breaks down with... SNIP

Q: How are those insanely high Temps/Pressures contained?
A: In the Honorverse by a gravity bottle. In real life pre disapora it is contained by a magnetic bottle.

Gravitic.... SNIP

Your brilliant deduction breaks down based on Chapter 1 physics.

Q: What is Newtons second law?
A: For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, a force, be it magnetic, gravitic, or fluid pressure exerts an equal and OPPOSITE force on the structure HOLDING the device, or fluid pressure in question...

So, said structure must be massively strong.

Your second massive failure stems from the fact you believe materials instantly vaporize. Well not only do they not "instantly", they do not vaporize either. The wave front can go around the object just fine. Thus, the pressure vessel structure will act as not only a physical shield, but also a time delay for whatever does get through, whereas the edges will not act this way. Likewise part of the structure will be denser, or more material in a linear line which will also either shield forward more, or less along with creating an uneven TIME delay wave.

PS> One of the main reasons for the magnetic retention today, is to keep the PLASMA OFFFFFFFFFFFFFF the walls of the reactor vessel. If this was not done, it would MELT the reactor vessel... OOPPSSIIIEEESSSS.

Explosions in water are vastly more destructive why? Because they have a mass able to HOLD the wave front which creates a longer TIME, allowing greater heating, allowing greater evaporation, equaling far more matter being converted into a larger VOLUME which makes the secondary shock wave much greater. In space, none of these factors are true.

While I'm not entirely sure you're right about the gravitic containment system playing entirely by the normal rules of physics - personally, I suspect it probably doesn't, or at least, not completely - that's secondary to the point that there's going to be a reasonably sturdy physical shell around where the gravitic bottle is working.

Relax wrote:

darrell wrote:Your thought experiment breaks down with... SNIP

Q: How are those insanely high Temps/Pressures contained?
A: In the Honorverse by a gravity bottle. In real life pre disapora it is contained by a magnetic bottle.

Gravitic.... SNIP

Your brilliant deduction breaks down based on Chapter 1 physics.

Q: What is Newtons second law?
A: For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, a force, be it magnetic, gravitic, or fluid pressure exerts an equal and OPPOSITE force on the structure HOLDING the device, or fluid pressure in question...

So, said structure must be massively strong.

Real world, yes. But I'd point out that Honorverse grav tech breaks many laws of physics. A hand pulser can shoot out a stream of darts each with the rough kinetic energy of a .50 caliber rifle round, yes somehow the recoil is low enough to be easily control one-handed!!
The grav field acting on the pulser darts appears to violate Newton's third law by not transferring the force of accelerating the dart back to the pistol.

RFC may treat his GRAVMAK fusion reactors the same way. The plasma is contained primarily by the very high gravity pulling it towards the center of the reactor, but the magic of gravimetrics may not put an equal outward pressure on the generators for the grav fields...

Relax wrote:

darrell wrote:Your thought experiment breaks down with... SNIP

Q: How are those insanely high Temps/Pressures contained?
A: In the Honorverse by a gravity bottle. In real life pre disapora it is contained by a magnetic bottle.

Gravitic.... SNIP

Your brilliant deduction breaks down based on Chapter 1 physics.

Q: What is Newtons second law?
A: For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, a force, be it magnetic, gravitic, or fluid pressure exerts an equal and OPPOSITE force on the structure HOLDING the device, or fluid pressure in question...

So, said structure must be massively strong.

Jonathan_S wrote:Real world, yes. But I'd point out that Honorverse grav tech breaks many laws of physics. A hand pulser can shoot out a stream of darts each with the rough kinetic energy of a .50 caliber rifle round, yes somehow the recoil is low enough to be easily control one-handed!!
The grav field acting on the pulser darts appears to violate Newton's second law by not transferring the force of accelerating the dart back to the pistol.

RFC may treat his GRAVMAK fusion reactors the same way. The plasma is contained primarily by the very high gravity pulling it towards the center of the reactor, but the magic of gravimetrics may not put an equal outward pressure on the generators for the grav fields...

I've always envisioned that if the grav field can act on the pulser round to accelerate it. Then it can also act on the recoil force of the round by dampening, dispersing it. A highly localized inertial dampening system. A modern aged "silencer" that "silences" force and not sound.

At any rate, it seems to satisfy my own personal "suspension of disbelief" police.

Relax wrote:

darrell wrote:Your thought experiment breaks down with... SNIP

Q: How are those insanely high Temps/Pressures contained?
A: In the Honorverse by a gravity bottle. In real life pre disapora it is contained by a magnetic bottle.

Gravitic.... SNIP

Your brilliant deduction breaks down based on Chapter 1 physics.

Q: What is Newtons second law?
A: For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, a force, be it magnetic, gravitic, or fluid pressure exerts an equal and OPPOSITE force on the structure HOLDING the device, or fluid pressure in question...

Incorrect. Newton's Third Law. Here they are:

1) Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

2) The acceleration of an object of constant mass is proportional to the force acting upon it.

3) Whenever one body exerts force upon a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force upon the first body.

MaxxQ wrote:Incorrect. Newton's Third Law.

Ut oh, going senile a bit early.....