So why does generator output matter in regards to whether or

ECAP/EPAC tech only stored the particles, not the energy needed to get the desired beam emission.

>>14473916
The generator has to be able to fill the ecap with enough energy.

>>14473916
Off-topic, but I absolutely love this shot. Sells how ominous and terrifying the White Devil must have been when Amuro started to get gud.

>>14474045
It does that, but it doesn't show when he actually dashed to the right and how. Did he move back behind the building for cover before hopping to the right and shooting or is it just an animation error?

>>14474196
i thought it was a decoy

It's been a decade or more so who even knows what the source was, but I could've sworn that I'd read that the ECAP/EPAC stored Minovsky particles and that the MS's generator's electrical output was used to power whatever components in the rifle/saber/etc. that compressed the particles into beams via magnetic containment [read: I-field]. Maybe that was in the MSG novels or something.

That being said, here's an article from Mark Simmons' website that may or may not add to the discussion:

http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/power.html

>>14474208
>>14474196

Very clearly a decoy.

Ammunition and electricity for operating the beam weapon are two separate things, a beam weapon isn't a machine that turns electricity into particle beams. You can basically think of a beam gun as a particle accelerator, you need particles to accelerate (ammunition) and power to keep the particle accelerator running (electricity).

E-caps and e-pacs store minovsky particles, the beam weapon uses electricity from the reactor to fuse minovsky particles together into mega particles which form the beam shot that comes out of the beam weapon's barrel

>>14473916
Ecap/Epack provides particles, not energy to fire said particles.

Basically the caps/packs contain compressed minovsky particles. When charged with enough electricity, they expand and transform into mega-particles and are shot out of the weapon.

It takes a fair amount of energy to cause the transformation of the particles to take place, and early MS couldn't regulate enough power from their reactors into the weapon to use them.

>>14474196
The Zaku are shooting at a GM. Then the gundam runs in from the side.

UC Generator outputs are laughably low.

They put out the same wattage as a ww2 piston engine from a fighter plane.

If you are going to have mecha powered by fusion reactors. You need power output to be at least 100 mega watts.

a Merlin Engine put out 1.2 mega watts

>>14474664
Here's mark's post on the subject

http://www.mechatalk.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13577

It's not a clear subject but evidence suggests that the power rating of a weapon is just the "activation energy" and the megaparticles are already stored. That said, even the marasai could recharge its e-pac as quickly as it shot, and that thing had a 3-round burst beam rifle.

File: mountain.jpg (64KB, 875x510px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 875x510px

>>14474776
3 Rick-Dom II reactors powered this shot and many more like it

>>14474842
that just means it takes a long time to charge up

next you'll be asking why the twin buster rifle and hi mega cannon can be powered by also tiny reactors

>>14474842
>>14474860
there are more problems with UC gundam reactors.

they purposely shoved GMs down the shaft in hopes of them getting shot in the reactor. So that they would blow up like a nuclear bomb.

then there are many more times in UC gundam where they try to avoid hitting the reactor. to avoid a nuclear explosion.

A fusion reactor would not blow up like that. It would just be a big, slightly irradiated fireball. since all the plasma fuel has breech containment and can no longer sustain a fusion reaction.

>>14474888
meh, a lot of sci-fi is like that

at this point it's an expected staple of sci-fi power sources

>>14474888
>http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/power.html
i do agree that the output numbers are fucking retarded, but the reactor explosion only happens when it is hit with a beam weapon this has been explained plenty of times even in the show.

>>14474978
>this has been explained plenty of times even in the show

Not really. Amuro slices a Zaku in half and then it blows up a few seconds later in a small nuclear explosion. Char fires at a exposed energy conduit with his Hyaku Shiki's vulcans and it causes the Salamis' reactors to explode. It's not the beam energy coming into contact with the reactor that causes such a thing, it's just the usual sci-fi thing where the writers decided "nuclear reactor damaged? MASSIVE explosion!" without it ever making sense.

I mean, in the same way that a breached reactor would never realistically have such a large explosion, why would beam energy do that ?

>>14474888
you're assuming that fusion is achieved in something like magnetic confinement or a tokamak. that doesn't need to be the case; fusion *can* be dangerously achieved; it's plausible, it's just not practical in our reality.

>>14475041
>Amuro slices a Zaku in half and then it blows up a few seconds later in a small nuclear explosion.
He sliced it in half with a beam weapon.

>Char fires at a exposed energy conduit with his Hyaku Shiki's vulcans and it causes the Salamis' reactors to explode.
He defintiely caused a chain reaction of some kind, but it didn't look like the type caused by a direct hit by a beam weapon (not nearly fast enough, and it would have immediately killed both of them.) Might have just ended up igniting leftover propellant or something.

Anyway, the large explosions caused by hitting the reactor have something to do with breaking the i-Field containing fusion reaction. It's not the reactor itself that explodes but rather it's a chain reaction caused by the specific pseudo science involved in the Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion reactor.

It's not just the reactor output. You may notice that the Gundam does not have power cables connecting its beam rifle to its reactor. That's because there are electrode plates in its hands that transfer power to the electrode plates in the beam rifle's handle. The Zaku powers its Heat Hawk the same way, but at a lower voltage.

It's like trying to charge your laptop's 20v battery with your smartphone's 5.1v charger.

>>14475071
>pseudo science involved in the MInovsky
It's just a Muon Reactor (a real thing) with Minovsky particles acting as a more dependable catalyst than muons. Like the minovsky particles, the I-Field is just a stand-in for the electromagnetic field that contains a fusion reaction in irl reactors.

And in irl high-temperature nuclear reactors, the point of containing the reaction in the field isn't to keep it from burning through the reactor housing, it's because direct contact with the comparatively much cooler walls of the reaction chamber would suck enough heat out of the plasma to stall the chain reaction.

>>14475071
>He sliced it in half with a beam weapon.
The problem with that is the beam sabre blade is a superheated plasma, while beam shots consist of high energy particles. Is it the heat that is the factor? Bernie's Zaku II FZ almost certainly had its reactor penetrated, yet there was no nuclear explosion. Ramba Ral's Gouf was stabbed in a similar way through the torso, but it took a long time to go nuclear.

Even then, that doesn't explain why the Shrikes and Oliver were able to simply crash parts of the V1 and V2 Gundams into ships and have them blow up as nuclear explosions.

>Anyway, the large explosions caused by hitting the reactor have something to do with breaking the i-Field containing fusion reaction. It's not the reactor itself that explodes but rather it's a chain reaction caused by the specific pseudo science involved in the Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion reactor.
But I-fields by definition repel beam energy. Why are only beams capable of doing that? The I-field itself would be in the centre of the reactor chamber, so disrupting it would mean penetrating the reactor anyway, right? Where are you getting this information from, if it is "explained plenty of times even in the show" as you say it is?

>>14475109
>But I-fields by definition repel beam energy. Why are only beams capable of doing that? The I-field itself would be in the centre of the reactor chamber, so disrupting it would mean penetrating the reactor anyway, right? Where are you getting this information from, if it is "explained plenty of times even in the show" as you say it is?

Not that anon but

I-fields can deflect anything, including physical weaponry and even radiation (demonstrated in Turn A). It stands to reason that also means weak I-fields can be penetrated or disrupted by megaparticles. Also, it's pretty likely that the I-field inside the reactor is being generated within the reactor, so any damage to the reactor would already be disrupting the I-field.

>>14474888
That hole in the mountain wasn't from a nuclear reactor. That's the Apsalus III's main gun, something that it borderline spammed considering how powerful the damn thing was.

>>14475151
>I-fields can deflect anything, including physical weaponry and even radiation (demonstrated in Turn A).
No, only the highly advanced I-fields in Turn A can do that. The early I-fields in UC can't do that, otherwise Sleggar wouldn't have been able to crash into the Byg Zam and Kou wouldn't have had his I-field emitter torn away from him.

>It stands to reason that also means weak I-fields can be penetrated or disrupted by megaparticles.
That I do agree with. Not all I-fields are equally capable, and both strong and weak I-fields exist with varying degrees of protection.

>Also, it's pretty likely that the I-field inside the reactor is being generated within the reactor, so any damage to the reactor would already be disrupting the I-field.
Well, that's I question why "only" beams are capable of doing that. Heavy enough damage to the reactor would do it regardless of whether it was a beam or not, right? It's just that it's easier to do with beams because of their excellent penetrating ability, and that in late UC when reactor breaches become more of a focus in the show, the vast majority of the weaponry shown are all beam weapons.

>>14475151
>That hole in the mountain wasn't from a nuclear reactor. That's the Apsalus III's main gun, something that it borderline spammed considering how powerful the damn thing was.
That's a whole other thing. >>14474842 was complaining that a mega particle cannon powered by three Dom reactors (~3600kW) was able to vaporize what looks like several thousand tons of solid rock, soil, etc. If weapons like that existed in UC, trying to stop asteroid drops like Axis and 5th Luna would have gone a lot smoother. The scale is out of whack for what we've seen from other large mega particle cannons.

>>14474842
How do you burn a hole right through a mountain but leave all the nearby trees intact?

>>14475235
Highly localized, focused bullshit. Well, some of the trees at the base of the mountain are lit.

>>14475108
Most of the traits ascribed to Minovsky particles are something muons do. I'm pretty sure they are muons, just ones that don't have insanely fast decay rates.