Re: new web site/status report

[T.L.G.vanderLinden@student.utwente.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

To Kelly,

>>Yes, that's about the case (25.35% to be more exact)
>
>5 times the ships mass in Anti matter and 15 times in matter.  Err.

Or 1.1E13 times the ship mass when you use the best fusion-material you can get.

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Thank you for looking at my page and giving several suggestions.

>How on earth do you pronounce "Yrev Tsaf"?  Does that mean anything special?

Try reading it backwards :-)

How you pronounce it, that is hard for me, maybe "I_ref ts_af" (I tried
splitting it up in more familiar parts).

>The fine print with purple charcters is a little hard to read but not a big
>problem.

I'll make them a bit darker.

>Some of the tables would be more helpfull if related to a physcal thing.
>For example where you list fusion energy to specific impluse.  Fusion
>energy is listed in what I think are mass conversion ratios.   (100, 200,
>300, etc.)  Which would be more help full if you had a table showing what
>fusion reactions generate those amounts.  Or more clearly explained the
>table.

OK, I will add these, if I'm right these are at your page.

>This is a big issue to me, since I'm trying to consider things from an
>engineer point.  So I usually need exaust velocity/specific impulse, or
>power in watts per kilo/pound of fuel, or something.

In the formulas for the power the factor M0 is used. Deviding by that will
give you power per kilo. In 2 tables the P[t]/M0 is shown.

>Mentioning which units your using in the equations would be a big help too
>(kilos, gram, mols - watts, ergs, Joules, etc.)

I had never thought of that, I always use SI units, but I will add a note
and use units at some places.

>Some parts I couldn't follow.  For example.
>
>===========================================================
>Results of the calculations:
>
> Mass at time t
>                   : ( 8.1) ( 8.2)
> Power needed at time t
>                   : (14.1) (14.2)
> Total Energy needed
>                   : (12.1) (12.2)
>
>
>Use (xx.1) when condition (3.3) is true, otherwise use (xx.2)
>===============================================================
>
>I have no idea what your saying here.  In general I had a hard time
>following the arangement of the equations and the numbering scheme.

Hmm, I don't understand what isn't clear. The numbers between round braces
refer to an equation. That most formulas come in pairs (xx.1 and xx.2) is
because of condition (3.3). This condition exists because I dump mass that
isn't used (This is often the case with fusion-fuels).

Indeed the numbering of (3) (3.0) (3.1) (3.2) (3.3) is less clear, I will
see what I can do about that. (The reason for that unhandy numbering was
because I added thing later and didn't want to change all numbering)
Further there are three groups of formulas, common formulas (x), formulas
that  look like (xx.1) and formulas that look like (xx.2). The (xx.1) use
(3.1) and the (xx.2) use (3.2).

>I couldn't fiqure out how to work back to the equations.  Possibly going
>through the use of the equations a step at a time or something, might help.

I do not understand where you have troubles with, I tried to make the steps
involved very small. Indeed sometimes the rewriting of a formula may give a
completly new look, but adding extra steps there would make things look more
complicated than they are.
What would you suggest (and where).
(I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly, if not could you
please restate it?)

>I tend to get lost in the equation section.  Which can be frustrating since
>it seems to be covering info I want to get.

I referred to the few formulas you should need in the part: "Results of the
calculations:"

  Mass at time t         : formulas (11.1) and (11.2)
  Power needed at time t : formulas (17.1) and (17.2)
  Total Energy needed    : formulas (15.1) and (15.2)

If you still don't see what you are looking for, please ask me again.


Timothy