The fighters launch from their carrier; they jink and turn, shooting bogeys down as they go. Finally, they approach the enemy capitol ships. They fly close, fire torpedoes, and escape, leaving behind billowing fire. Wait. Is this World War II or a space opera confection?
In this article, we’ll consider how the size of ships affects how they can fight—and come to some surprising conclusions.
In my previous article on the geometry of empires, I considered two essential strategies for organizing the defense of a territory. In one, troops were positioned along the border, ready to intercept enemies but spread thin. In the other, a single, centrally-located force was powerful but slow to respond. These are extreme approaches, though, lying at the ends of a spectrum filled with intermediate strategies.
Apr 23, 2010 | Filed in models | Tagged: geography, history, scale
The pre-modern state aims to defend its borders against enemies. The size of its territory, though, has profound implications for how it can do this; which may in turn influence how that state develops—whether, in particular, it seeks aggressive expansion.
Apr 04, 2010 | Filed in models | Tagged: geography, history, scale
Imagine you’re to evaluate a group’s ability, perhaps in sharp-shooting, and award ratings like A or F. You might plan a series of challenges, of increasing difficulty. What if these turn out to be much harder than you planned, so that while you expected a mean success rate of 60%, it was actually 20%? The obvious solution is to multiply all scores by 3 to bring up the average. But it turns out that this (and any other linear correction) penalizes the weaker performers.
Mar 20, 2010 | Filed in models | Tagged:
