Remember that Drill from The last Airbender?

[Olumin]

That Drill the Fire Nation built to get through the Walls of Ba Sing Se...

I have been wondering how big and heavy that thing must be ever since I've seen it for the first time, but there is no data anywhere for it...

Being German, Im obviously automatically an expert when it comes to giant war-machinery... So I calculated it! Its quite simple really...

Based of this Picture:



Using the height of the characters for scale, I calculated the length of one of these "Sections" of the drill, which came out to be 14 meters.



I took this measurement and copy pasted a single section until they reached the entire length of the thing, which took about 40 sections.

40 * 16 = 560 Meters!

Using the same method I calculated the height/width: 32 Meters!

That's more then DOUBLE the length of the RMS Titanic! And Still 100 meters longer that the biggest ship ever built; The Seawise Giant with 460 meters.

The Weight of that thing would have to be AT LEAST 120.000 metric tons, and thats using the average "Density" of a Olympic class liner! MOST Likely it is much heavier... perhaps even much over 200.000 Tons, considering that thing is fully armoured.

I think it goes without saying that such a structure would not be structurally sound, and so heavy that it could not be moved, even using the most powerfully of steam engines...

Now you KNOW, spread the word!

Rating: Completely implausible, but cool I guess...

[tp4tissue]

They definitely have some sort of  Structural Integrity Field//Magic,  also similar to the Lambda Drive technology from Full Metal Panic, which counteracted behemoth mecha's gravitational stress.

[Olumin]

They definitely have some sort of  Structural Integrity Field//Magic,  also similar to the Lambda Drive technology from Full Metal Panic, which counteracted behemoth mecha's gravitational stress.

Show Image

Yea, not to mention that, with the Technology displayed in that show, they could never built it in the first place. Also, How the HELL did they MOVE that thing across the entire continent to the middle of a dessert! Did they built it just a few miles down or what?

Does not seem like something you can transport by ship...

Image how long it wold take that thing to move across the entire kingdom. How did they transport Supplies for the Tausends of crew members? Water, Coal for months? Humbug!

[tp4tissue]

awef

Hrrrrmm...

Welll.... with magic which bypass certain physical interactions, they could create some very special alloy matrices..

Transportation isn't a problem, if they had some sort of mana-engine..

It's honestly a very well thought out drill, it's even got holes, which is either for through flute coolant swarf clearance or maybe some sort of fire magic holes to crack rocks faster by heat.

[Olumin]

awef

Hrrrrmm...

Welll.... with magic which bypass certain physical interactions, they could create some very special alloy matrices..

Transportation isn't a problem, if they had some sort of mana-engine..

It's honestly a very well thought out drill, it's even got holes, which is either for through flute coolant swarf clearance or maybe some sort of fire magic holes to crack rocks faster by heat.

Nah, just some machine, no magic in the world of Avatar (I mean apart from bending, which wont make this thing work any better..). Just Rule of Cool.

Kind of Sad considering that it established the rules of bending very well and followed them consistently, but they cant get basic physics right. Don't even get me started about the Steel-cladded airships which would be way too heavy to take off... When it comes to the consistency of science and Physics in this world, they just didn't pay attention.

I think there was a case in which a character DOGES a LIGHTNING BOLT... yea..

I guess its just not the focus..

[tp4tissue]

awef

I think the lore from the show is loose enough that they could explain all that,  it's not too rigid like startrek, where they made technologies too specific.

For bending, they could say, oh fire nation has this special mineral, which helps make bending more efficient, etc..

We don't really know the full extent of the amalgam of their magic and technology..

[Olumin]

awef

I think the lore from the show is loose enough that they could explain all that,  it's not too rigid like startrek, where they made technologies too specific.

For bending, they could say, oh fire nation has this special mineral, which helps make bending more efficient, etc..

We don't really know the full extent of the amalgam of their magic and technology..

Yes we do. They can bend fire, shoot and control flames. 3 people or so can generate lighting. That's it. They built that thing, along with their tanks, ships, airships... out of carbon-Steel and use steam engines which are depended on a steady supply of Coal and Water and are powered by fire bending. We even see them having giant coal mines... That has been established in the world and is mentioned many times over in the series.

Only thing is that perhaps their planet is quite a bit smaller then earth (Mars sized, maybe smaller even?), and therefore has less gravitational attraction. That would solve some problems. Not all tho..

[tp4tissue]

Yes we do. They can bend fire, shoot and control flames. 3 people or so can generate lighting. That's it. They built that thing, along with their tanks, ships, airships... out of carbon-Steel and use steam engines which are depended on a steady supply of Coal and Water and are powered by fire bending. We even see them having giant coal mines... That has been established in the world and is mentioned many times over in the series.

Only thing is that perhaps their planet is quite a bit smaller then earth (Mars sized, maybe smaller even?), and therefore has less gravitational attraction. That would solve some problems. Not all tho.. [/size][/color]

That's what they HAVE shown us ,  but my point is, they're not specific enough about the tech parts,  such that there is nothing UNSEEN by us.

So, that Murky area of their universe,  can be later tapped to explain details such as the Drill; some secret military technology...

[Olumin]

Yes we do. They can bend fire, shoot and control flames. 3 people or so can generate lighting. That's it. They built that thing, along with their tanks, ships, airships... out of carbon-Steel and use steam engines which are depended on a steady supply of Coal and Water and are powered by fire bending. We even see them having giant coal mines... That has been established in the world and is mentioned many times over in the series.

Only thing is that perhaps their planet is quite a bit smaller then earth (Mars sized, maybe smaller even?), and therefore has less gravitational attraction. That would solve some problems. Not all tho.. [/size][/color]

That's what they HAVE shown us ,  but my point is, they're not specific enough about the tech parts,  such that there is nothing UNSEEN by us.

So, that Murky area of their universe,  can be later tapped to explain details such as the Drill; some secret military technology...

[tp4tissue]

Show Image

Now we're cookn'

[xtrafrood]

This thread reminds me of the rabbit hole I fell into when I read about Elon Musk's Boring company


[Not The Last Airbender but neat nonetheless.]

Sauce - How did we get here? A look back on Seattle’s tunnel machine Bertha | The Seattle Times