How exactly did you calculate that? I am not so sure that collision damage is physics correct to the T.
OP's gone with "what is the kinetic energy of a ship, all that energy of motion gotta go somewhere."
Kinetic energy - that would need to be dissipated non-destructively in the event of lithobraking - is found by (1/2) * (mv^2) - yes I am overusing parenthesis, you see what you did with your endless BODMAS/PEMDAS memes?
In the meter-kilogram-second (mks) system, that there kinetic energy will be measured in Joules, so we'll need to deal with some kilos and megas and such.
300 tonnes is 300,000 kg. (duh)
Assume 40 m/s (that's in metres per second, so that works
)
300,000 x 40^2 = 300,000 x 1600 = 480,000,000 Joules
Halve it per the equation (which I wrote at the front, just to fool you) - 240,000,000.
240 million -> 240 Mega Joules. So total energy of a collision at 40m/s will easily blow past 206 MJ of a "shield" that is somehow a thing for magically dissipating energy.
However, because of that
square of the velocity, the energy drops off faster than you think at lower speeds.
If I rearrange the equation to work backwards (I didn't really, I used one of the websites that does it, that they have now), 206 MJ is actually good for ~37.06 m/s - so I think OP worked it out this way too and then just forgot you can't handwave the "approx" because that 3 m/s difference gets squared to 9 and becomes a significant difference.
And there's a thing that feels a bit unphysical - I'm happy shields construct a weirdofield(tm) which magically wicks away energy, but I do feel like that should be
over time not just... a total. I guess in the context of battle there is "damage per second" so the concept of chiselling away at the 206MJ a few seconds of pew-pew at a time is there, but it does feel a bit like a peak of decelerating the entire ship in the space of six inches should be harder to cope with than soaking up lasers for minutes on end.
I'm happy with the handwavium because this is exactly how brakes work, they reject the motion as heat, this is just a different but similar transduction problem. Brakes are limited by the heat rejection rate though. You'd assume the shield would run into that limit at some point given 'most everything turns into heat eventually. Your road car will do an emergency stop from 100mph to 0 a
couple of times but on the third run the brakes are too hot before you even try to use them...
(Do your own "no
my road car definitely won't do that even once" jokes)
What I know: Collision damage counts as absolute damage
Possibly because of the heat rejection and/or energy over time issues I raised above.
, with two consequences: a) it ignores resistances
'cos everything turns to heat eventually.
yeah. You gotta plug a fridge in if you want it to pump heat from where you don't want it (the command seat) to where you do want it (the universe)
So, if you're on a path unable to avoid a collision: Quickly put four PIPs into SYS and enjoy your 2.5 times stronger shields. 206 MJ sounds awefully little though unless you are colliding at pedestrian speeds. Which chances are, you will not be
.
37 m/s is like... a tenth of a fairly average Cobra's boostiness. (Can't remember exact cargo scoop speed but isn't it somewhere around there? Slowwww.)
.
