12/07/07 [DMFA #851] - Overcompensating? Maybe...But that's what Engineers do ;)

[Naldru]

Jy-jy just needs to make a giant cannon if you ask me.

Rockets are more efficient than cannons in the larger sizes due to some problems in scaling.  You can double the payload and double the range fairly easily with rockets.  With cannons, even small increases may require massive changes in the projectiles and cannon bore.

By the way, I am an engineer.

[RJ]

*gets the urge to read her old Dilbert books*

[Zedd]

Mostly with an short fuze...And long gruge...Its gonna take him awhiles

[techmaster-glitch]

I must say, I quite enjoy this comic. It is a very nice start to the promised return of the zany antics. Also, as an aspiring robotics engineer myself, I can relate to this very much. 'When in doubt, build it bigger!'

[AnizInDisguise]

Jy-jy just needs to make a giant cannon if you ask me.

Rockets are more efficient than cannons in the larger sizes due to some problems in scaling.  You can double the payload and double the range fairly easily with rockets.  With cannons, even small increases may require massive changes in the projectiles and cannon bore.

By the way, I am an engineer.

Fine then. Jy just needs to build a giant DEATH RAY.

[Alondro]

Jy-jy just needs to make a giant cannon if you ask me.

Rockets are more efficient than cannons in the larger sizes due to some problems in scaling.  You can double the payload and double the range fairly easily with rockets.  With cannons, even small increases may require massive changes in the projectiles and cannon bore.

By the way, I am an engineer.

Fine then. Jy just needs to build a giant DEATH RAY.

Well, Nikola Tesla did have that working prototype...

I would suspect a better and more powerful version is easily producible with today's technology, though its effective range is still likely limited.

The problem with all 'death rays' is that energy tends to diffuse over distance, therefore to make apowerful enough ray you have to consume a huge amount of energy for very little destructive result.

Conventional weapons and nukes simply deliver more bang for the buck, which is all that really matters in warfare.  Just look at the failure of the V2 in WWII for a perfect example.  Scary weapon, highly advanced technology, but just didn't do enough damage relative to its tremendous cost.

[Cogidubnus]

Dan's eyes seem to be dilating a bit. Perhaps he's had a wee bit too much holiday ale?

[AnizInDisguise]

Jy-jy just needs to make a giant cannon if you ask me.

Rockets are more efficient than cannons in the larger sizes due to some problems in scaling.  You can double the payload and double the range fairly easily with rockets.  With cannons, even small increases may require massive changes in the projectiles and cannon bore.

By the way, I am an engineer.

Fine then. Jy just needs to build a giant DEATH RAY.

Well, Nikola Tesla did have that working prototype...

I would suspect a better and more powerful version is easily producible with today's technology, though its effective range is still likely limited.

The problem with all 'death rays' is that energy tends to diffuse over distance, therefore to make apowerful enough ray you have to consume a huge amount of energy for very little destructive result.

Conventional weapons and nukes simply deliver more bang for the buck, which is all that really matters in warfare.  Just look at the failure of the V2 in WWII for a perfect example.  Scary weapon, highly advanced technology, but just didn't do enough damage relative to its tremendous cost.

Ah, but Jy-jy lives in a world with magic! And more importantly, is friends with an endless source of it!

[Darkdragon]

Ah, but Jy-jy lives in a world with magic! And more importantly, is friends with an endless source of it!

How would that benefit Jyrras' contraptions if his magically-inclined friends refuses to help?

[kaskar]

    Ah,  but inventing has always just been one of Jyrra's hobbies ...

[Brunhidden]

Ah, but Jy-jy lives in a world with magic! And more importantly, is friends with an endless source of it!

How would that benefit Jyrras' contraptions if his magically-inclined friends refuses to help?

Mabb is completely unable to resist cute, which Jyjy has in infinite supply.

However Jyjy believes it beneath him to just walk into a place and say "gimme all the money and make me king or i do the puppy dog eyes"

[Reaver225]

Well, Nikola Tesla did have that working prototype...

I would suspect a better and more powerful version is easily producible with today's technology, though its effective range is still likely limited.

The problem with all 'death rays' is that energy tends to diffuse over distance, therefore to make apowerful enough ray you have to consume a huge amount of energy for very little destructive result.

Conventional weapons and nukes simply deliver more bang for the buck, which is all that really matters in warfare.  Just look at the failure of the V2 in WWII for a perfect example.  Scary weapon, highly advanced technology, but just didn't do enough damage relative to its tremendous cost.

Teleportation's where it's at. Alternatively, portals. Imagine a portal next to your opponent or other obstacle, then imagine the other portal in the sun.

Now, for good measure, reimagine the first portal inside your opponent/obstacle.

[Brunhidden]

please refrain from using the physics of a single videogame as a basis for actual technology, it makes mows cry 

especially due to having a portal in/on the sun and one on earth would bathe the planet in radioactive plasma that would vaporise the entire earth. you are not allowed near any scifi special effects.

teleportation is all well and good, as are 'portals' which you should look up the word 'wormhole' for a more accurate image of how they would function in theory. the only real problems are that a teleporter quite often only sends information of the item transported, makes a copy, and either destroys the original or merely made a clone somewhere else.... clearly not a good idea for moving people. wormholes are a real possibility, but with our current technology we could theoretically open one the size of the space shuttle using enough electrisity to light japan for a year, and this hole would only be big enough to send a potato chip down the middle as anything larger or too close to one edge would be smeared across the galaxy as monatomic dust.

Testla's death ray stands appart from all of these as it uses existing technology and existing physics- the 'death ray' is really only a way to focus a bolt of lightning in much the same way as you focus light into a lazer or a spray of water into a paralell stream, thus allowing you to aim it and reach targets much farther then a gun would be able to hit. The full scale model was going to be a gigantic tower which could hurl lightning accureately enough to swat planes out of the sky, but people at the time laughed at the idea and nowadays weve got better things to use to blow ship up.

Jyjy strikes me as being at least equal in mad genious as old Niki was, and may surpass some of the ideas that earth mad scientists have come up with. Nikolas other idea was to charge the earth itself with electrical power enough that you could plug your radio directly in the sand if you went to the beach, but his finantial backer Rockerfeller asked if there was any possible way to proffit and Niki said no- Jyjy is rich enough not to care. Freeman dyson thought of the 'titan' project which used explosives instead of traditional rocket fuel, a scale model showed that this method could easily lift Cincinati into orbit gracefully using a string of 'low level' (read- ones that would be considered a joke today, like the ones korea tested) atomic bombs as a propulsion method, but was canceled due to a treaty signed forbiding the detonation of atomic devices in the atmosphere... something tells me that furrae has no such treaty and Jyjy would not care if there existed one.

The possibilities for mad science are endless when you have a roorat billionare in a magical land

[bizun]

Dan's eyes seem to be dilating a bit. Perhaps he's had a wee bit too much holiday ale?

Oh, may!
Do they also have 'Tuborg Julebrygg' in Furrae? I love the stuff!
And talking about mad-science and huge things: how about one-Tera-watt pulse plasma beam, just to write one's name on surface of the Moon?

[Alan Garou]

I like Dan's new outfit. It's got a nice Chinese vibe going for it. And as for Jyrras... let's just say that bigger than a garage-full is a waste.

[Caswin]

Dan's eyes seem to be dilating a bit. Perhaps he's had a wee bit too much holiday ale?

He looks to me like he's had several too many cups of coffee and in spite of what his word balloon may claim to be saying is what is coming out of his mouth he is in fact talking and talking and talking to Lorenda in one ridiculously fast and incredibly unbroken sentence owing to the aforementioned overdose on coffee and the accompanying caffeine rush that is causing him to do this thing that he at any rate appears to be doing based not only on his eyes but even the way his mouth is open seems to point to this regardless of the panel's actual content which is overshadowed not only by its successor but its art that leads to the conclusion described above.

*SLURP*

[Brunhidden]

I like Dan's new outfit. It's got a nice Chinese vibe going for it. And as for Jyrras... let's just say that bigger than a garage-full is a waste.

hes been wearing diffrent clothing more often now, i would assume the tunics are for yard work, but now that his warm robe is gone it may also be cold weather wear when he cant expose his chest and abs

[Reaver225]

please refrain from using the physics of a single videogame as a basis for actual technology, it makes mows cry 

...You know, I actually totally didn't remember the actual game Portal when I made that post (I'm going to get it soon... stupid uni blocking outgoing gaming connections... grr) though I probably had it on my mind. I was actually thinking about Farscape's wormhole weapons which actually fit the description you were talking about in the first bit (though it's almost ridiculously easy to scale weapon yields to manageable yields by a: let off limited amounts of energy by timing the portal to close rapidly, and b: simply making the portal/wormhole a fraction of a centimeter large (or smaller if necessary). Also, significant numbers of wormhole types lack the 'destructive copying' teleportation uses (e.g. joining two pieces of space together means no loss of consciousness or material when moving between the two). Teleportation, while less ethical for movement of sentients, are certainly still useful for moving inanimate objects or even livestock if you're more loose about morals. Also bombs and other such things, and if you turn off your receiver you get a beam gun AND a disintegrator in one go!

Yeah, the Orion project being cancelled sucked. Yeah. It makes sense to ban nukes for weapons, but a shame they've banned peaceful applications of it as well.


But if you REALLY want a wacky weapon (admittedly one that only works on solid celestial bodies, like the Moon) you want a Geodynamic Resonance Device (also a Tesla invention). It simply shakes, and shakes, and the resonance builds up throughout the planet until IT IS SPLIT IN TWAIN! AHAHAAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! aha... ahem. Yes.

[Naldru]

I must say that engineers do sometimes perceive things differently.  I had this vision of a conversation between Dan and Mab.

Mab:  How did you like the set of wrenches Jyrras gave you.

Dan:  I wanted wenches, not wrenches.  Although I will admit that this two inch combination wrench would be really useful in dealing with some nuts I've known in the past.

[techmaster-glitch]

I must say that engineers do sometimes perceive things differently.  I had this vision of a conversation between Dan and Mab.

Mab:  How did you like the set of wrenches Jyrras gave you.

Dan:  I wanted wenches, not wrenches.  Although I will admit that this two inch combination wrench would be really useful in dealing with some nuts I've known in the past.

You rock, Naldu

[bizun]

I must say that engineers do sometimes perceive things differently.  I had this vision of a conversation between Dan and Mab.

Mab:  How did you like the set of wrenches Jyrras gave you.

Dan:  I wanted wenches, not wrenches.  Although I will admit that this two inch combination wrench would be really useful in dealing with some nuts I've known in the past.

Was one of them like that one ?
(great apologies to Studio Foglio for copying the image. )

There also something on Nikola Tesla invention brought to life:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071126
...and mad Science in general...

[Naldru]

Was one of them like that one ?
(great apologies to Studio Foglio for copying the image. )

There also something on Nikola Tesla invention brought to life:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071126
...and mad Science in general...

No, that's a adjustable pipe wrench.  You can tell by the serated jaws.  If it had smooth jaws, it would be a monkey wrench.  (Yes, monkey wrenches are real, but they've been replaced by the more modern adjustable wrench.)  This is a two inch combination wrench.  The entry doesn't list the weight, but it has a good heft to it.