Nope, thus the challenge…
You signed up to clear that up? Well done.
If his name is based off the Paladin Self Propelled Gun… maybe he’s a tank expert?
On the Weather Channel’s “Top 100 Weather Moments” they listed somewhere in the top 10 I think it was,a tornado in Minnesota in 1915 or so, and it lifted 70-85 ton railroad cars up off the tracks and tossed them 85 feet or so.
I saw the other tornado listed in this thread and it was from 1931, and “only an F3”.
Something else to consider here, the tornado that destroyed the town of Greensburg,KS earlier this year was an F5, and it was 1.7 miles wide when it hit the town.
1.7 miles of 300+MPH winds,even in your slightly soggy ground, I’d say that yes, a tornado could pick it up and flip it over.
About a year ago one of the drivers for one of the other companies like the one I work for was headed back to town.
It was about midnight or so, so he didn’t see the tornado that happened to be crossing the Interstate right where he happened to be driving.
The guy in the truck behind him said “his truck just took up off the ground like an airplane”.
This would be a 17 (empty) to 40 ton (fully loaded) 18 wheel tractor trailer.
Are Paladins proper tanks or just DPS support?
Thinking on this, there’s too many variables. Negative and Positive Pressure, force per square inch, lift, Air Density, width of the cone, etc. There’s no real way to figure this out with an exact formula. The weight of the tank would be lessened because of the negative pressure but the question is just how much. Would there be enough difference between the pressure below\above the tank? Certainly the hatches would blow open if they weren’t secured but would that same theory apply and allow it to be picked up? It’s less about surface area and more about the pressure IMO. And the sides of the tank doesn’t really matter because there’s a TON of surface area from the TOP.
So in theory, if you lessen the pressure above the object, it gets “Lighter” and the wind pushing on the sides becomes more effective so not only do I think it could spin the tank and would do so at first, once it started, it would amplify the effect to the point where it would leave the ground.
How high? No clue, but it seems reasonable that a F5 could throw a tank this heavy IMO.
Yep, kinda regretting it now. I was a M1 tanker for 6 years in the National Guard so I figured I would share some of my experience with you guys.
So, tell us about being an M1 tanker.
How much time do you spend inside the tank? How hot/bumpy/loud is it? What else is cool/not cool about being a tanker?
Cool
Shoot big guns.
Drive a big tank that goes through almost anything.
Uncool
Tank breaks down… a lot.
Waiting for the mechanics to come fix your broken tank… a lot.
Waiting in line to shoot the big guns in the hot sun and the mosquitos for hours. Then finally be next up and have your battalion commander bump in front of you.
Sweating your balls off because its near 100 degrees outside but 120 inside your tank.
Spending the majority of your military career moving from one line to the next.
But I’m not bitter. Really.
Whoa. And he lived through that?! Did he have any injuries?
Yes, he lived through it.
However, he broke his back in 2 places I think, broken collarbone, and 6 or 7 broken ribs.
All in all, not a fun ride that night.
He has since recovered and is back to work.
You forgot the part about replacing the governor screw and upping the top speed of the tank from 45 to 60+ MPH.
(I live near an army base and have heard stories ;) )
The Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook gives stagnation pressure calculation as q=.00256V^2 (V in Mph, and q is in psf).
A 300mph wind would generate a stagnation pressure of 230.4 psf. Therefore a simple structure with a 10 X 10 ft wall would experience a load of 23,000 lbs or almost 12 tons on the one wall. This combined with lift forces on the roof will easily destroy any wood framed structure. An M1 abrams is 26 ft long and 8 ft tall for a surface area of 208 ft^2 on one side even at 203.4 psf we are talking about a load of ~42000 lbs well in excess of weight of a similarly sized conventional vehicle or structure, but nowhere near the 140,000 lbs that the Abrams weighs. If it is on slippery ground it may move, but it is not going to be tipped or lifted in any significant way.
Well, there you go.
And it only took 4 years!
Jesus, is this guy like the new Narrator or something?
NEEDLESS TO SAY, I’M EXPECTING AN ANSWER.
Holy cow - what an epic first post. Sounds like a fun book! wait a second… are you a viral marketer? LOL
Tornadoes lifting objects is not so much about about aerodynamics as it is above available surface to move air underneath, which can be influenced by available surface area and aerodynamics (by tipping for instance). An angled object that’s extremely heavy and very low to the ground can withstand massive tornadic winds. A heavy single-mass object with a large return of surface area can be tipped and lifted easily. There’s a big difference. The M-1 is angled from certain angles and while it has a relatively low profile for a tank, still has a fairly large surface area to deal with. But it’s super heavy, and is a single, heavy mass object. Turret locking will probably not make much of a difference, however IIRC an M-1 turret is kept in place by gravity, so it may be able to get lifted/shifted much more easily.
— Alan
Jesus, is this guy like the new Narrator or something?
NEEDLESS TO SAY, I’M EXPECTING AN ANSWER.