Why are you folks discussing this? To be clear, I don't mind, I'm just
curious. Why would a similar concept apply to giant, fighting mecha?
Has there ever been MS races in any of the various Gundam animes? That
would be cool!, IMO.
BlazeEagle
Dr. Core wrote:
Chris Campbell wrote:
Um...Doc, why would you apply said rule to mobile suits? The three
second rule is meant for automobiles that brake in predictable
Heh... in the time it took for the mails to bounce around, I was
calculating accelerations and stopping time/distance. Just off the
top of Google, I was using the UK Highway Code, but the US or anywhere
else is pretty similar:
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm
The 3 (or 2 for UK) second rule is based on the human reaction time
(0.2-0.3 sec) plus the braking distance. The braking distance indeed
depends on all those things you listed so doesn't apply to MS on
ground or in space. But the principle is that "if something happens
to the car/MS in front, you want to be able to stop completely before
you crash into that something", which can apply to any moving machine.
Now you can easily calculate the deceleration from the braking
distances from the above highway code. And you get 6.5m/s^2 which is
0.66G, which is lo and behold exactly the same as Dom/Rick Dom. The
acceleration for Gundam is better at 0.93G, on Asshimar (the on-screen
impression strikes me as pretty fast) it's a freakish 1.48G...
So for Dom/Rick Dom the 3-second is ok, for Gundam, Asshimar etc the
rule has to be revised. For Asshimar...
Hmm I can't find a cruising speed, so I'd take Dom's max ground speed
as a conservative guess: 240kph. With 1.48G, the Asshimar can come to
a complete stop from 240kph in 4.6sec, add 0.2sec for reaction time...
ahh let's give the Newtype pilot a 200% boost over regular pilot... so
-0.2sec (negative reaction time!). That give you a 4.4 sec rule
instead of a 3-sec rule.
Of course we all know the 3- sec rule is completely ludicrous in any
situation, equally silly for cars and for MS. But you brought it up
as "Best rule of thrumb", so I just show some math for what it means
in real life (for highway) and MS (to bring it on topic).
I don't know how everyone drives, but even if the situation allows it
(no grandmas cutting me off) I don't keep 23 car lengths in front of
me. Because that principle "if something happens to the car/MS in
front, you want to be able to stop completely before you crash into
that something" is silly. WHY? I leave that to others to debate.
--
Dr. Core
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