RE: starship-design: Interstellar Probes

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

Bjorn,



> I assume you're actually refering to the GRAVITATIONAL field or else
> you've got me really lost... :/
>
> Now how high Velocity could our probe have if we want it to do a 180???
>
> Does anyone know the equation?

Yes, I meant MAGNETIC. It's called Lorentz Force Turning. A charged object
moving through a magnetic field experiences a force at right angles ti its
direction of motion and the magnetic field. The magnitude of the force is
described by the equation:

|Fbar| = |QVbar * Bbar| = QVBsin theta

where Q is the charge on the object, Bbar is the magnetic field vector, Vbar
is the velocity vector, and theta is the angle between Vbar and Bbar.
Skipping a bit of math involving the application of Newton's Second Law,
this can be reduced to:

r = mV/QB

where r is the radius of the orbit, m is the object's mass.

Hope this helps <G>

Lee