Realism of Depictions
Some fictional sources describe the projectile as moving at significant fractions of the speed of light, implying an unrealistically high amount of energy given current human capabilities. The coordinate mass (mass accounting for effects of special relativity based on velocity) of a projectile is, where c is the speed of light and m is the mass at low velocities, where the effects of special relativity are insignificant. The kinetic energy of the projectile would be represented by, where m is the coordinate mass, and v is the velocity. As the velocity of the projectile increases, the total mass increases quickly, making it immensely hard for velocities of such magnitude to be attained. To date only microscopic particles have been induced to go so fast through human technology.
Read more about this topic: List Of Electromagnetic Projectile Devices In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words realism and/or depictions:
“The realism of failure, the romance of success.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Surely, of all creatures we eat, we are most brutal to snails. Helix optera is dug out of the earth where he has been peacefully enjoying his summer sleep, cracked like an egg, and eaten raw, presumably alive. Or boiled in oil. Or roasted in the hot ashes of a wood fire.... If God is a snail, Bosch’s depictions of Hell are going to look like a vicarage tea-party.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)