MBT stats are slightly physically impossible

[Mustang]

Long time, but I'll be banned fast.

Let's do some math on tank engine power vs weight.

Abrams frontal area is 10m2. That's 100 tons of steel to 1 meter. Let's double that for the rest of the tank.

It comes to 100 tons for 500mm. Now, the engine is 1 mw. The coefficient of friction for track to dirt is .5. So it can support 2 mw of static friction. Gravity is 9.81 per so we can support 20 tons of weight.

As you can see a tank is unable to move with 20-30 tons of weight, and furthermore it's weight for the claimed armor is 100 tons. We could reduce the Abrams to 100mm armor. 50mm if we want to to be somewhat mobile.

But I'm not criticizing the game, all the features are there, just noting it's physically impossible.

[jp10]

Yet somehow an Abrams moves in real life. Just like a bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly as per wing span.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by jp10

Yet somehow an Abrams moves in real life. Just like a bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly as per wing span.

Any tank romping around at 30mph in real life is separate from the theoretical armor value it has in games.

There is nothing wrong with bumble bees, they move their own weight in air every second and one ton of air a week, and it takes 1 megajoule of energy to do this which is the same as the tensile strength of the 1 gram of food they consume to do this. They dissipate 1 watt of heat per second which is a very reasonable cooling rate.

[jp10]

I find your "Let's double that for the rest of the tank." to be in extreme contrast to the preciseness of the other calculations.
The numerical weight of steel per cubic meter is 7850 kg/cubic meter, not 100 tons. One cubic meter of Chobham armor is not solid steel. It is an arrangement of steel and ceramic plates A fully loaded Abrams weights around 73-75 tons.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by jp10

I find your "Let's double that for the rest of the tank." to be in extreme contrast to the preciseness of the other calculations.
The numerical weight of steel per cubic meter is 7850 kg/cubic meter, not 100 tons. One cubic meter of Chobham armor is not solid steel. It is an arrangement of steel and ceramic plates A fully loaded Abrams weights around 73-75 tons.

I said slightly because it is close to the physical limits. Fortunately there are no Maus in the OOB.

[DRG]

The numbers used for "steel" armour in the game are EQUIVALENCY VALUES that estimate the accumulated effect of the various armour types that make up the hull plus the effect of the slope of the armour and how all that would add up as a defence against a solid shot penetrator.

Steel, of course, was the only material used in armoured vehicles at the start of the time period the game covers but that all changed with the introduction of new armour types that resist solid shot more effectively without the need for thicker, heavier steel but "Steel" is the term used in the game to cover armour values that counter solid shot penetrators but the days of it being solid steel are long gone by. We thought everyone understood that. Apparently, we were wrong.

Armour HEAT values represent the same effects on a shaped charge warhead in the same way