A5_7 Laser Pool

In this paper we ask the question of how feasible the concept of laser pool would be (using a laser instead of a pool cue). The laser is initially considered to be of comparable diameter to that of the ball, and is compared to a more focused beam. The geometry of the system is considered in detail, calculating how much photon momentum is transferred to the ball. We find the required laser power is approximately 3 × 1023W for the wide laser, and 5 × 1010W for the focused laser

A5_10 Solar Laser

Following on from previous work, this paper aims to demonstrate the effect on Earth’s orbit that a solar laser would have (a laser with a power equivalent to that of the Sun), ignoring all physical effects other than the radiation pressure. It is found by simulating this scenario that the Earth’s orbit is expanded at a rate of approximately 40 cm per second. A Sun powered laser is then considered, although this is found to accelerate the Earth to relativistic speeds in an extremely short timeframe

A5_12 World's Greatest Pitch

The goal of this paper was to investigate the possibility of an ordinary human to recreating a scene from the first episode of the series Invincible in which two characters throw a baseball around the Earth. It is determined that this scene would be impossible to recreate on Earth, however it could be done on a planet with a radius of 67.03 x 103m, roughly 1/100th that of Earth

A5_1 Exploration of Dune’s Ornithopters

The 2021 movie Dune utilises ornithopters with a unique eight winged design. In this paper we investigated the requirements needed for such a design to function. It was found that merely hovering would require the wings to beat ∼ 1.78 times a second, while requiring ∼ 183 horsepower each

A5_3 Sonic the Dead-Hog

Sonic is the protagonist of a video game series that goes by the same name. The games revolvearound sonic crossing obstacles at high speed. A signature of Sonic is that he rolls himself up into a ball and spins up to bolt off at the speed of sound. In this paper we will be looking at the heat Sonic produces from the friction of spinning up to this high speed and the conequences this has on him. Moreover, we will demonstrate that the generated energy per second of 89kJ leads to a temperature increase of 850°C per second in Sonic. Lastly, we will briefly cover why he cannot roll at a linear speed of the speed of sound due to limited frictional torque the ground can provide

A5_11 Saving Alderaan 2: Momentum Strikes Back

This paper will look into whether the mass of silver required to successfully reflect and absorb the Death Star's (DS's) laser intent on destroying Alderaan, in the PST paper Saving Alderaan: A Star Wars Story, could be accelerated by the DS's laser out of stable orbit and into Alderaan with enough kinetic energy to overcome the previously calculated gravitational binding energy of Alderaan, thus destroying it