Fly a tank?, Inspiration from the A-team! Options

[Draco18s]

i'm not sure you understand what exactly 1 G is. weight/mass is not applicable.

It is when you're crashing into something (eg. the hard stop at the end of a fall).

Acceleration in that context has nothing to do with gravity (but can still be measured in Gs).

Force equals Mass times Acceleration.

Force (Gs) = Mass (20 ton tank) * 60mph -> 0mph in 6 seconds.

* The g-force acting on a stationary object resting on the Earth's surface is 1 g (upwards) and results from the resisting reaction of the Earth's surface bearing upwards equal to an acceleration of 1 g, and is equal and opposite to gravity. The number 1 is approximate, depending on location.
* The g-force acting on an object in any weightless environment such as free-fall in a vacuum is 0 g.
* The g-force acting on an object under acceleration can be much greater than 1 g.
* The g-force acting on an object under acceleration may be downwards, for example when cresting a sharp hill on a roller coaster.
* If there are no other external forces than gravity, the g-force in a rocket is the thrust per unit mass. Its magnitude is equal to the thrust-to-weight ratio times g, and to the consumption of delta-v per unit time.
* In the case of a shock, e.g. a collision, the g-force can be very large during a short time.

[Doc Chase]

Especially since even in a non-pink Mohawk campaign you can easily say 1 chute in 2074 handles are shit ton of weight fine, the 3 are only for stabilization and making sure it lands right etc. The chutes of the future do not have to have the same limits as the chutes of today.

It's not the strength of the chute - it's the surface area. The strength is in the cords holding the tank to said chute - and enough of them could probably well hold a tank of that weight. But you'd need some serious surface area to make sure that tank actually slowed down - it's like trying to use a standard-issue umbrella to jump off a six-story building.

[Dahrken]

Just my two cents on the topic of hitting water.

IMHO it's not the surface tension of the water that cause the problem, it is a really weak effect - the kind that prevent dust or small insects to sink but not much more. Reducing it won't do you much good.

It's the inertia and viscosity of the liquid and the force you must exert to push it away to make room for your intrusion into the new medium. A good dive will focus the forces on the diver in a direction his body is more able to handle, move relatively little water and loose it's speed comparatively more slowly, minimizing stress to the diver.

In contrast in a belly flop you're basically trying to force a rather large volume of water to suddenly move in the same direction as you, slowing down much more abruptly and sustaining those forces in a direction our body is not really designed to handle.

Exploding tank shells n won't help much with that unless you have an extremely good timing. It can even make things worse. You may have seen pictures of underwater explosions, with that huge pillar of water rushing upward. In fact it's not directly the explosionthat creates the pillar, it's the displaced water rushing back and expending it's energy in a direction where there is less resistance - up.If you're unlucky this will add a lot of water rushing at high velocity toward you, increasing the brutality of your crash into the water rather than reducing it...

[Shinobi Killfist]

It's not the strength of the chute - it's the surface area. The strength is in the cords holding the tank to said chute - and enough of them could probably well hold a tank of that weight. But you'd need some serious surface area to make sure that tank actually slowed down - it's like trying to use a standard-issue umbrella to jump off a six-story building.

Fine add the line and creates enough surface tension. Heck do we even know if in todays day and age when these drops are done why they use 3 chutes. Does 1 chute create enough surface tension and the others are there for redundancy, stability or other issues and not just slowing it down. Maybe they only need 2 chutes and the 3rd is for redundency but one chute still slows it down a heck of a lot. They are dropping a multimillion $ vehicle maybe 3 chutes is huge overkill.

[Jaid]

It is when you're crashing into something (eg. the hard stop at the end of a fall).

Acceleration in that context has nothing to do with gravity (but can still be measured in Gs).

Force equals Mass times Acceleration.

Force (Gs) = Mass (20 ton tank) * 60mph -> 0mph in 6 seconds.

* The g-force acting on a stationary object resting on the Earth's surface is 1 g (upwards) and results from the resisting reaction of the Earth's surface bearing upwards equal to an acceleration of 1 g, and is equal and opposite to gravity. The number 1 is approximate, depending on location.
* The g-force acting on an object in any weightless environment such as free-fall in a vacuum is 0 g.
* The g-force acting on an object under acceleration can be much greater than 1 g.
* The g-force acting on an object under acceleration may be downwards, for example when cresting a sharp hill on a roller coaster.
* If there are no other external forces than gravity, the g-force in a rocket is the thrust per unit mass. Its magnitude is equal to the thrust-to-weight ratio times g, and to the consumption of delta-v per unit time.
* In the case of a shock, e.g. a collision, the g-force can be very large during a short time.

yeah, you might want to look at the second-to-last point also. notice that it is "per unit mass". (edit: to clarify, thrust is roughly synonymous to force. if you take force, and then divide by mass... you get acceleration. 'F = m * a' is equal to 'a = F / M', right? /edit)

you calculate the number of Gs by taking the *acceleration* and dividing that into the acceleration due to gravity. in no case does it matter how much the object weighs (although that would certainly apply if you were calculating force over all, it is not related to the number of Gs something is experiencing).

this is not to say i don't think the tank falling from an airplane into a lake isn't likely to be lethal... but g-force is a measurement of acceleration, not force.

[crash2029]

This thread is a perfect example of what DS is. A discussion on whether you would allow an awesome over ther top cinematic maneuver turns into dueling physicists. Man, I love this place.

[IKerensky]

Today this tank is NOT DROPPED, thoses "chutes are Drag Chutes, the tank is supposed to roll off the cargo bay at very low heigth and the chute are there so he slow down and keep in the horizontal.

They are not designed to sustain it in gliding mode...