On Sun, 24 Feb 2002, Phoebus R. Dokos wrote:
> True, from a physics standpoint the collision favors the larger vehicle
> from a standpoint of deforming...
<SNIP>
> However newer vehicles have controlled deforming zones. Don't also
> underestimate inertia on a bigger vehicle (with a greater mass)...
Precisely... If your vehicle has more inertia, it will undergo a slower
acceleration (everything is an acceleration - deceleration is merely an
acceleration in the direction opposite to the direction you're currently
travelling in, relatively)
As an on-topic note, I used my QL at Uni. I wrote several BASIC programs
for subjects like energy distribution, acceleration vectors, suspension
behaviour etc.
Although my studies were more aimed at air accident investigation, we had
a shortage of study materials so cars were used - there were plentiful
supplies of wrecked autos at the local wreckers yards...
The most difficult modelling I did was to create a 128x128x256 array which
represented a vehicle in space. Each location had a mass, initial stength
and initial deformity rating. By colliding arrays, I could do crude
collision modelling. I started on adding other factors, like deformity
vectors, variable loading before failure, non-compressible blocks etc, but
completed that work on a PC because the QL was just too slow for the task.
Colliding two 128x128x256 arrays, with 10ms frames and 500 frames required
took usually over two days. With aircraft (1024x1024x512) it took over a
week (with a smaller number of variables per cell)
I've CC:d this to ql-chat, so we can remove it from this list.
Dave
