How much kinetic energy (Mass/Speed) is needed to destroy buildings at KSC?

[Flying Beaver]

Hi All

The past few hours in KSP i have been building stock "Kowitzers". But I i'm having trobule using them to destroy the spacecenter buildings, even though it seems so easy when you're not trying.

I was just about to start some scientific tests to see how much energy is needed, but I would be great I someone knew off the top of there head what the 'magic number' was.

Thanks

Flying Beaver

Edited March 16, 2015 by Flying Beaver

[InterCity]

I'm not sure... It could be about 50 kN, from what I've seen and done. Probably more.

BTW Howitzers are anti-infantry. You need a proper cannon.

Edited March 16, 2015 by InterCity

[Mister Dilsby]

No time for it here, but if I really wanted to find this out I'd use Hyperedit to delte Kerbin's atmosphere, and drop fuel tanks of a known mass from varying heights over the VAB until I found the exact altitude threshold of destroyed/ not destroyed. Then I'd test the physics model by trying to scale different masses to different altitudes--I don't think we don't know for sure whether explodyness is based on just mass, just velocity, momentum (mv) or kinetic energy (mv2).

[Random Tank]

It seems to be that weight is a much bigger factor than speed; you can have 200 ton VTOL/Rocket land on the VAB at 0.5m/s and destroy it, yet a 15t plane travelling at 200m/s into it won't even scratch the paintwork. Also, I think part impact tolerance can make a big difference too, as I have a car made out of structural panels (80m/s Impact Tolerance) that can destroy any building in the KSC by bumping into it once at a mere 2m/s...