Oct
30
Rocketman and Super Powers
Submitted by Jack Pate under Uncategorized |
In the annals of military misconduct, are the stories of numerous military personnel and civilian personnel who purloined certain military materiel for their own purposes. Such theft is cause for severe punishment in some circumstances. Sometimes it is cause for military retribution including dishonorable discharges, prison time, and so forth. Sometimes it is somewhat humorous. Other times it is both humorous and tragic.
Having a local military installation nearby, we periodically hear news of misconduct such as military and civilian personnel selling equipment or stealing equipment for their own use. I learned the story of one soldier who was smart enough to figure out how to steal a rocket motor from an installation.
He was not smart enough to calculate the physics of its use. He perceived that he would be able to make his automobile perform some feats of speed otherwise unattainable if he were to mount a bracket under his automobile to use the motor of a small rocket.
Again, he was bright enough to design a bracket to hold the rocket. He was not trained well enough to know how to calculate the physics of specific impulse, thrust, and the burning time of the rocket.
He figured out how to mount and ignite the rocket and set about on his project. The military officer who described the scene told me that the path of the car proceeded down a paved road. Clearly the rocket motor burned very powerfully and exceeded the speed that the driver of the car could negotiate. By the end of the ride, the car had left with the tires skidded to shreds along a large extent of the path, the tires burning up. Meanwhile, the brakes on the vehicle had been completely burned up. The vehicle eventually became airborne. The car had achieved such speed that it had been launched off the road destroying the car, the driver, and the future of an errant soldier.
People are fascinated with the concept of super powers. Connecting a rocket to an automobile is hardly a super power. Yet the management and handling of that power is terrifying. True, cartoons show all kinds of clap-trap and humorous concoctions of devices. However, those are cartoons. The actual equipment is very real, is governed by very real laws of physics, and is not handled except on principles of engineering appropriate for the task. Why people long for super powers when they are so incapable of handling the limited power already available to them is beyond me. Clearly, we do not understand all consequences that would result if we had the power to change many of our mundane circumstances.
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