Tractor Beams: can they pull you in, then slingshot you out the other way?

[Soulfisher]

The subject says it all: can tractor beams pull you in, then throw you out behind the pulling ship (now acting like a repulsor beam)?

Also, If an Escourt tractors a Baseship, will the Escourt be pulled closer to the Baseship (with the Baseship remaining in the same combat square)?

If these questions have already been answered, please direct me to the proper thread. My search of this forum for, "effect of tractor beam", did not find any answers. Thanks.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Soulfisher:
The subject says it all: can tractor beams pull you in, then throw you out behind the pulling ship (now acting like a repulsor beam)?

Also, If an Escourt tractors a Baseship, will the Escourt be pulled closer to the Baseship (with the Baseship remaining in the same combat square)?

If these questions have already been answered, please direct me to the proper thread. My search of this forum for, "effect of tractor beam", did not find any answers. Thanks.

Sorry, the tractor and repulsor beams will target any size ship, but if the kt of the attacker is smaller, the weapon has no affect.

I pretty much reserve them for Battle Station, Starbase or Baseship hulls, to insure they work against most opponents. I don't make their research a priority anyways.

[oleg]

No, it can't. The whole idea of tractor/repuser beams is beyond our understanding of gravity/inertia, so any rational thought based on Newton' law is comletely irrelevant to SEIV (or almost any other Sci-Fi) universe.

[Taera]

no oleg your wrong, as it makes complete sense - in rea world the greater mass attracts the lower mass (think about sun->earth or earth->moon or moon->stones), it is impossible the other way. As for slinging through it is only possible if giving the object at least a short orbit which is impossible due to 2d of the combat and the short time of effect the weapon does.

[capnq]

in rea world the greater mass attracts the lower mass (think about sun->earth or earth->moon or moon->stones), it is impossible the other way.

On the contrary, the force of attraction on both objects is equal; the larger mass shows less effect because of F = ma.

The "wobble" caused by the pull of a planet on its star is how we've found most of the extrasolar planets we know about.

[Ed Kolis]

Back to the original topic, I wonder how tractor beams work with unit Groups... if I have a stack of ten 80 kT satellites, could they tractor a 600 kT battlecruiser?

[Taera]

i believe the answer is YES

capnq - your right, but there is the g equation which im lazy enough to not go and find my physics datasheet to see. the difference between Earth's and Sun's mass is quite enough to overcome the acceleration difference. As a matter of fact, on universal scale, the sun is moving faster than the earth does.

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by Taera:
capnq - your right, but there is the g equation which im lazy enough to not go and find my physics datasheet to see.

F = GmM/(d^2)

Originally posted by Taera:
the difference between Earth's and Sun's mass is quite enough to overcome the acceleration difference. As a matter of fact, on universal scale, the sun is moving faster than the earth does.

That depends on how you measure. If you measure both in the same frame of reference on a universal scale, the earth is moving faster than the sun for significant portions of the year, and slower for others. However, total distance traveled (measured as the crow flies, not by path taken) is approximately equal over large periods of time, as the Earth stays within a particular range of the Sun. As the Earth revolves around the Sun much more than the Sun revolves around the Earth, the Earth travels much more total distance (by path traveled) in that time, and so spends most of its time traveling faster than the Sun.

[Soulfisher]

What I meant to say was:

If a Battlecruiser uses a Massive mounted Tractor Beam on a Cruiser who is presently at a range of 3, will the Cruiser move any more than 2 spaces towards the Battlecruiser?

For that matter, will the Cruiser *ram* the Battlecruiser because of the Tractor Beam?

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Soulfisher:
What I meant to say was:

If a Battlecruiser uses a Massive mounted Tractor Beam on a Cruiser who is presently at a range of 3, will the Cruiser move any more than 2 spaces towards the Battlecruiser?

For that matter, will the Cruiser *ram* the Battlecruiser because of the Tractor Beam?

No, tractor beams only pull a ship until its adjacent. You have to pound on it with weapons, or board, or give your ship a ram order.