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  I have a question about shock waves & gravityNov 11, 2014 4:55 AM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:The sequence of the previous two pages, with the torpedo exploding above Selenis and then the ice crashing down on her, touched off a couple interesting discussions with readers about the effects of underwater explosions, mainly that shock waves underwater are much more serious business than those in air; I'd read that on Wikipedia's Underwater explosion page when I posted the link to it a few pages back, and if I'd thought about it really in depth I could have just had the blast wave from the explosion KO Selenis, but I had been looking forward to dropping the ice shelf on her for so long that I didn't really consider it. ; ) Also, every time I draw an explosion, I should do so with the disclaimer that the explosions in the drawings are not as close as they appear—it seems I can't help exaggerating them a bit for effect! :"P Here, the torpedo was supposed to have traveled a pretty good distance past Selenis before it hit the ice, so she wasn't intended to appear to be right next to the explosion or anything, exactly.
 
The discussions did bring up a factor that could be pertinent in low-gravity situations such as this one, though (this moon is relatively tiny, and thus has only a fraction of standard Earth gravity), and that is the question of water pressure on shock wave strength. Wikipedia says

Mass and incompressibility – water has a much higher density than air, which makes water harder to move (higher inertia). It is also relatively hard to compress (increase density) when under pressure in a low range, say up to 100 atmospheres. These two together make water an excellent conductor of shock waves from an explosion.

Water pressure varies directly with gravity (since the water on top of you weighs less), so the water pressure here is pretty low, and over the weekend I was thinking at first that that would mean the density was lower, and shock waves wouldn't be as bad. But now that I've re-read the article and seen the part about water not compressing much in the "low range" anyway, I *guess* shock waves in this low gravity ocean wouldn't be all that much different from our standard gravity Earth oceans. Would they? Googling didn't turn up much on this, maybe because putting "pressure" in just gives hits about the pressure of the shock wave itself, or because it's something that's totally obvious if you know the math, which I of course do not. ; )
 
Anyway, the ice won—this time! : P
 
 
 
 
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