Chapter 165: Weapons of a Level-3 Civilization (1)
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
[Light Needle (Level 3): Accelerate one gram of ‘needle point’ to 99.999999% of the speed of light. Using the ma.s.s enhancement effect, it generates a collision energy of 139.5 billion trillion megajoules upon impact with any ma.s.s. Prestige required for exchange: 500.]
Zhao Yu read the description of the weapon on the exchange list, scratching his head, somewhat puzzled.
He understood each word in the description, but when combined, it all became incomprehensible. The last sentence, which mentioned producing 139.5 billion trillion megajoules of collision energy, left him unsure of the true power of this weapon.
All he knew was that this light needle was a weapon available to level 3 civilizations.
Fortunately, he could ask others about what he didn’t understand.
Zhao Yu was about to ask Colonel Chu what a joule was, but then he paused.
Asking so abruptly might make explaining the origin of the weapon tricky.
With patience, he waited until his work here was done. As usual, he returned to his quarters.
After waiting a bit longer, he finally found Colonel Chu in high spirits.
“Commander, do we have some good news?!” Colonel Chu asked curiously, seeing Zhao Yu returning in a hurry with a joyful look on his face.
“The Pangu civilization has transmitted a new weapon!”
“What?!”
Colonel Chu’s face lit up, and he quickly asked, “What kind of weapon?!”
Zhao Yu read the description from the prestige list and asked, “Do you know how powerful 139.5 billion trillion megajoules is?!”
“139.5 billion trillion megajoules?!”
Startled by the huge number, Colonel Chu quickly took out a piece of paper and started calculating.
“The formula for impact energy is E=i/2mvA2, where E represents impact energy, m is the ma.s.s of the impact object, and v is velocity…”
“The speed of light, c, is 299792458111/5, and the weapon description mentioned a ma.s.s enhancement effect…”
Colonel Chu paused for a moment, recalling some information, then resumed his calculations, “Ma.s.s enhancement effect means the motion ma.s.s of matter follows the ma.s.s-speed relationship. The formula is M=id/V[1-(v/c)a2]…”
H H
“The energy released by the explosion of one ton of TNT is 4.i8*ioa9 joules…”
“The energy required to destroy Earth is 3/5XGMA2/R = 6.299X10A32 joules, where G is the gravitational constant, and M and R are Earth’s ma.s.s and radius…”
“The energy produced by the light needle’s impact is 1395X10A32 joules…”
A look of astonishment crossed Colonel Chu’s face, “The energy produced by the impact of this light needle is enough to destroy Earth 200 times!”
But soon after, he furrowed his brows, “From this calculation, the power of the light needle is actually less than that of a particle singularity collapse bomb…”
Colonel Chu explained a lot, even muttering as he calculated, as if speaking to someone else.
But Zhao Yu only understood the last two points: the light needle could destroy Earth 200 times, but its power was not as strong as a particle singularity collapse bomb.
Feeling curious, Zhao Yu asked, “What do you mean?”
Colonel Chu spoke with a complex emotion, “The Light Needle strike can be considered a physical attack. The particle black hole collapse has something to do with gravitational waves. We don’t know much about this area. From my feeling, a gravitational wave attack is much more advanced and harder to defend against…”
“Can this Light Needle be defended against?” asked Zhao Yu in confusion.
Colonel Chu explained, “In the case of a physical attack, as the Light Needle description says, it needs to hit an object with ma.s.s to release such a ma.s.sive amount of energy. Before it hits anything, it’s just a needle moving at nearly the speed of light…”
“As for a particle black hole collapse, it covers a range of 500,000 kilometers. Within this range, we have almost no chance to escape or defend…”
“But with the Light Needle strike, knowing that it moves nearly at the speed of light, it’s impossible to detect. But light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second. According to the data a.n.a.lysis from the previous war, our laser defense system can hit with 100% accuracy only within a 30,000-kilometer range of our warships…”
“This means if we keep dodging and don’t follow our original path while staying over 30,000 kilometers away from the enemy’s ship, we have a good chance of avoiding the Light Needle strike…”
Colonel Chu stopped himself before he could finish, shaking his head, “No, I can’t calculate it like this…”
“The Light Needle strike uses a ‘needle tip’ as its carrier, which only weighs one gram. Our current gravitational wave detectors absolutely cannot detect it…”
“With the speed of the Light Needle, other detection equipment also won’t be able to spot it. By the time these devices can detect the Light Needle, it would mean that the strike has already happened…”
“With the speed of the light needle, other types of detection equipment will not be able to detect it. When these equipment can detect the light needle, it means that the collision has already happened…”
“Considering the vacuum environment in s.p.a.ce, the Light Needle strike essentially has infinite range…”
“Unless it hits an obstacle beforehand and releases its energy, before that, the Light Needle can keep moving at the speed of light indefinitely, without losing any energy…”
Colonel Chu was getting more excited as he continued, “Infinite range is theoretical, in reality, there are many objects with ma.s.s flying around in the universe…”
“But even with countless unknowns in the universe, within a galaxy, we can calculate all the obstacles in the entire universe and avoid them in advance, achieving long-distance Light Needle strikes…”
“And, according to the description, this Light Needle only weighs one gram.
Does this mean we could keep shooting them off?”
He became somewhat agitated, “A particle singularity collapse bomb needs a warship as its carrier. It’s hard to use without a warship, it’s very noticeable and its shortcomings are clear – each warship has to self-destruct to use it…” “But the Light Needle strike, if it could really be fired continuously like kinetic cannon, it’s hard to even imagine….”