Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
I've read somewhere that collision with a hydrogen atom at near-luminal speeds would rip a cannonball size hole in steel
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I don't know about THAT much energy, but look at what a beam of protons (essentially hydrogen nuclei) traveling at 99.99 percent of light speed can do:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/a...s-to-stop-it/1
From the article: "In experiments, researchers found that an 86-microsecond exposure of the beam would bore a hole 40 meters into a block of copper."