Recent content by Athyn

To compare this device to a bunker-buster, I believe, would be innaccurate. A bunker buster is an explosive device designed to penetrate deep into the ground and then explode. This weapon would just be a solid titanium rod which slams into the ground after being propelled at great speeds from...

I don't believe that it would penetrate the ground too much. The force of the impact when it hits the ground would probably obliterate it. And even if it did penetrate the ground, the kinetic force of it slamming into the ground would be immense.

Mainly it is just laziness. But the question was born from a competition between a friend and I. We are both trying to think of weapon systems that would be cheap to manufacture and would also be incredibly powerful. My idea was to fire a solid-core 100kg titanium rod from a satellite in high orbit.

And if I were to use Newton's law of gravitation what would my answer be? I'd do it myself but I really don't know how. I know next to nothing about physics. Thus I came here to ask this question! :-p

What would the explosive yield of a 100kg, 1 meter long, solid core titanium rod falling to the Earth from high-orbit be?