Explosives

In the science fiction source I have read that uses TDX (James Blish's 'Cities in Flight' series), it is to do with the molecules in the explosive compound being 'polarised' so that the effects of the blast are maximised at right-angles to the local gravitic field. Whether it is something that is 'built-in' to the explosive when it is manufactured, or whether it is something that occurs at the time of detonation is not clear from the source material. The implication in the old JTAS Ship's Locker that it turns up in is that it occurs at the point of detonation.

If anybody is interested in a truly destructive implementation of TDX, a two-dimensional shaped nuclear charge was designed as a pulse unit for Freeman Dyson's Orion spacecraft. In this case, it is all to do with the shape of the 'filler' material in the pulse units.
 
I know next to nothing about explosives. I don't understand the TDX explosives description in the Equipment chapter (IIRC). Could someone give an example of how a TDX explosive might be used in game play? Bonus points for another example in zero-g / vacuum.
 
If an explosion is limited to two dimensions rather than three, then the blast radius (or the damage decrease with range) would be bigger, because to would fall off at a square and not a cube rate. Probably should have an AP, though. Or higher damage. And it's not that simple, because... it... depends... on... how.. thick... you... slice it?

(And now I have to apologise for the TL17 Neutrino detonator that I cut and pasted from the old CSC, because reading it just now... it makes zero sense - should be a strong force disruptor or something like that.)
 
And now I have to apologise for the TL17 Neutrino detonator that I cut and pasted from the old CSC, because reading it just now... it makes zero sense - should be a strong force disruptor or something like that.
Don't neutrinos participate in weak interactions, not strong? (That's part of why they're so hard to detect, and protons are so hard to induce to fuse: the weak interaction is, well, weak.)
 
The weak interactions that neutrinos may cause inside an atomic nucleus may result in quarks changing their flavour - which could have some "interesting" knock on effects
inducing fission
which could result in disintegration
or even more science fiction though can't be ruled out changing a quark to an antiquark - yup manufacture antimatter by manipulating the quarks themselves.

So the TL17 neutrino detonator may either be causing a small fission bomb effect, a disintegration effect, or even a matter/antimatter explosion

Isn't science fun :)
 
The part about only affecting organic tissue (conceptually stolen from the capitalist neutron bomb, I presume, which involves... not neutrinos much) but if you're going to 'break the bonds that hold matter together', I was thinking toning down the strong force so that the gluons got weak less strong, quarks start to wander and then get snapped back becoming just as charmingly coloured as before. But we're (okay, just me) talking about nonsense either way, since to concentrate neutrinos to the point that do anything at all would be problematic - and whatever you did to generate the neutrinos would be more energic than anything else involved, unless you're suddenly capturing all those things already out there that can go through a light-year of lead... so yeah nonsensical - it's like building a hydroelectric dam and power station purely for its fish chumming ability.
 
The part about only affecting organic tissue (conceptually stolen from the capitalist neutron bomb, I presume, which involves... not neutrinos much) but if you're going to 'break the bonds that hold matter together', I was thinking toning down the strong force so that the gluons got weak less strong, quarks start to wander and then get snapped back becoming just as charmingly coloured as before. But we're (okay, just me) talking about nonsense either way, since to concentrate neutrinos to the point that do anything at all would be problematic - and whatever you did to generate the neutrinos would be more energic than anything else involved, unless you're suddenly capturing all those things already out there that can go through a light-year of lead... so yeah nonsensical - it's like building a hydroelectric dam and power station purely for its fish chumming ability.
It's no more silly than artificial gravity...
Traveller postulates nuclear damper and meson technology as more advanced than jump or gravitics.

Jump is messing around with the structural dimensions of the universe, while gravitics are inventing a completely unknowable effect. I can just about twist Wolfram hypergraphs, Penrose twistors, geometric theories (geometric unity, lie8, spinnors, etc.) into some sort of justification for being able to handwave jump dimensions, but gravitics has me stumped.
Even the graviton can not do what Traveller gravitics does.
 
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Chemical reactions involve electromagnetism - a chemical reaction is the rearrangement of electrons between atoms and is accompanied by a transfer of electromagnetic radiation - IR or heat radiation. Then there is the actual movement of electrons or ions, causing electric and magnetic field vibrations and yet again electromagnetic radiation.

Until we get handwavium explaining gravitics than its all magic.
 
Could be partially a physical casing, with a direction blast directly towards the top, and unable to penetrate the top, spreads sideways.
 
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