Re:Relativistic Spaceship
by mlyle on Tuesday February 06, 2024 @12:18AM
(#39271048)
They're saying a fastball pitch-- 340 joules or so of energy.
The thing is, you need to be going implausibly fast to have a proton have a fastball level of energy. Even at .99999999 C, a hydrogen atom still has less than a microjoule of energy. You need a lot of 9's to get up to 340 joules.
1/sqrt(1-(0.99999999)^2) * (1 atomic mass unit * (speed of light)^2
1.05529895 × 10-6 joules
The thing is, you need to be going implausibly fast to have a proton have a fastball level of energy. Even at .99999999 C, a hydrogen atom still has less than a microjoule of energy. You need a lot of 9's to get up to 340 joules.