NationStates Jolt Archive

Sitting here at work I have suddenly started to wonder how big the Mothership was in ID4?

I can find the dimensions for Star Destroyers, all the Enterprises, BS Galactica and even Babylon 5 but not the ID4 Mothership.

Can anyone help?

EDIT: Oh I'm such a nerd.

Apparently, it was 150km in diameter and 1/4 the mass of the moon (you'll have to calculate that one...I'm feeling lazy :D).

http://www.nitcentral.com/movies/id4.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=independence+day+id4+mothership+dimensions

If it were an absolute necessity that you have a some idea, I would say that the ship was about 4x the size of the White House.
Im sure you find those dimensions and do some math.

If its a precise technical readout you need, I suggest masturbation.

Texpunditistan you are a god among men, thankyou!

Texpunditistan you are a god among men, thankyou!
Nah... I'm just T3H G00GL3M4573R! ;) :D

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTT

*backs away avoiding eye contact*

One quater of the moon's mass, huh? Well why did they bother sending fyling saucers to destroy cities? All they had to do was hover between the earth and the moon and let the increased tides devestate the earth's coastal cities? Stupid aliens.

And why send out alien fighters to take out earth's jet planes? How not just extend your shield and let the fighter planes smack into it?

Why did the shield stop the nukes? You can see through the shield, so we know it transmits light. Keep lobbing nukes till you overheat the damn thing and melt the saucer.

What is wrong with these aliens? Why hadn't they updated their technology for fifty years? They hadn't even changed their programing. What are they? Space Luddites?

Why was the existance of alien craft kept secret? Don't you think we could have avoided a lot of cold war silliness if people knew there were possibly dangerous aliens out there?

And did you notice that it took the entire U.S. airforce to take out one saucer, but Australia was aparently able to do it with a few 40 year old F-4 lead sleds? Funny that.

Ahh, that was fun. ID4 fans, flame away! I'll be hiding on another thread. Bye!

I prythee, bring my calculator hither. Forsooth, I shalt do some math!

If we assume the ship is a cylinder, the acceleration due to gravity at the perimeter would be as follows:

g = Gm/r^2

g = (6.67E-11 Nm^2/kg^2) (1/4) (7.35E22 kg) / 150E3^2 m
g = 57.5 m/s^2

This is an acceleration of 5.6g, so yikes, those aliens must be really tough! And it further increases reciprocally inwards into the ship.
In the absolute center of the spaceship the denominator becomes zero, so we have ourself a gravitational asymptote there.

If anyone can give me the height of this thing so I can calculate the volume (h pi r^2) and find the ridiculous density of this thing (m/V) too...

This is an acceleration of 5.6g, so yikes, those aliens must be really tough!

Unless they have antigravity and inertial dampeners of course ;)

This chap has an almost obsessive site full of pictures and dimensions of load of starships (including the ID4 mothership). http://www.merzo.net/

Nice pics but how much time does he have on his hands?

Not a fan of the movie, just killin' time-
One quater of the moon's mass, huh? Well why did they bother sending fyling saucers to destroy cities? All they had to do was hover between the earth and the moon and let the increased tides devestate the earth's coastal cities? Stupid aliens.
They where trying 'shock and awe.' Or they thought-if we hover over the cities people will come to us but if we rely on the waves people will just move inland. Then they'll just be left with a bunch of people demanding anal probes...

And why send out alien fighters to take out earth's jet planes? How not just extend your shield and let the fighter planes smack into it?
Same reason we don't let people fish with dynamite. Where's the sport?

Why did the shield stop the nukes? You can see through the shield, so we know it transmits light. Keep lobbing nukes till you overheat the damn thing and melt the saucer.
'Cure is worse than the disease.' Then earth would be left with the anal probe fans...

What is wrong with these aliens? Why hadn't they updated their technology for fifty years? They hadn't even changed their programing. What are they? Space Luddites?
Yes.

I'm a little disturbed that my Mac can't even play well with PopCap.com but that dudes' Mac could sinc up with an alien ship...but thats a well-worn road...

Why was the existance of alien craft kept secret? Don't you think we could have avoided a lot of cold war silliness if people knew there were possibly dangerous aliens out there?
It was the real reason for the cold war...

And did you notice that it took the entire U.S. airforce to take out one saucer, but Australia was aparently able to do it with a few 40 year old F-4 lead sleds? Funny that.
Australia has always had a better stock of drunk burn out crop dusters who where even better at heading straight for something...

Ahh, that was fun. ID4 fans, flame away! I'll be hiding on another thread. Bye![/QUOTE]
Ah....that killed some time. Too bad bored doesn't equal funny...sorry for everyone who read all the way through that hoping I might hit once...

Too bad bored doesn't equal funny...
That was funny!