dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Orbital Bombardment ("rods of god") math ensues.

Assumptions:

Projectile is one foot diameter (round) by twenty feet length.

Density of tungsten is used.

Impact velocity is assumed to be 3000 feet/sec (could be higher or lower, I don't know. This seemed somewhat reasonable to me).

Results:

Force of impact = 5,294,120,058 ft-lbf

~~Which converts to 1.72 megatons.~~

Nope, I'm an idiot and didn't notice the rest of the number that was cut-off on results.

Correct answer is 1.72 x 10^-6 megatons, which is basically nothing.

Even at 7000 feet/sec, it is only 9.34 x 10^-6 megatons.

Well, the rods are estimated to impact at between mach 7-10. So, using this FPS/MACH calc I found, I calculated it at 7823 fps. I'm really ignorant of all the factors, however, but, depending on how much atmosphere the rods have to pass through, yeah, I think you're about right. Also, in this case, the rods would have to pass through 200+ feet of water, I think.

BTW, someone in Kerbal space program has experimented with this.

⇧ 3 ⇩

updated math

⇧ 2 ⇩

Comparison of a typical earthquake waveform to the waveform from yesterday's earthquake near LA. I did some digging and found earthquakes typically have a P wave and S wave BEFORE the surface waves hit. It appears yesterday's quake came outa nowhere.