Does my take on Godzilla break the Law of the Conservation of Energy?

[GodzillaLouise]

I know he breaks square cube law, that’s fairly standard for Godzilla, but does he break Conservation of Energy?

For context, my take on Godzilla is able to take 8.41421 metric tons of radioactive materials and use it as nuclear fuel, which he is able to use to both generate energy attacks, such as his Atomic Breath, and to sustain himself for up to ~150 years. During this time, he does not need to consume any physical food and produces minimal waste for a creature his size (probably about as much as an adolescent African Bush Elephant, though I don’t want to think about that further.)

Additionally, while using his energy-based attacks would affect the time period before he needs to consume more fuel, given how frequently he uses them during his battles with other kaiju in my stories, each usage probably takes off at most a few days. This would be very significant given my take on Godzilla’s base Atomic Breath is a concentrated energy blast with a power output of 10 Megatons per Second.

Anyway, given what I’ve said about my Godzilla, would he break the Law of the Conservation of Energy?

[Salmoneus]

Obviously not.

Famously, E=mc^2.

Plug 8.4 metric tons into that and you get about 180,000 megatons, which is more than 10.

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However, the energy production mechanism clearly has nothing to do with radioactive materials for nuclear fission purposes. The standard amount of energy produced from uranium in a modern nuclear power plant per kg, combined with the fuel size of 8.4 tonnes, would only produce about 0.3 megatons. Godzilla would need to be 30 times that size to breathe that breath for even a single second, if it relied on nuclear fission of radioactive materials.

Not to mention that it wouldn't be possible to actually release all that energy so quickly anyway. Each breath would be about 20 times more powerful than the largest nuclear fission bomb ever designed.

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However, this is all irrelevant, since 10 megatons per breath is just a silly number, and there's no point trying to connect it to real mathematics.

For context, 10 megatons is the equivalent of about 60 Hiroshima bombs. Everyone and everything within 20 miles or so of it when it breathed would be killed. Anything within about 3-4 miles of it would be obliterated. The shockwave would be heard around the world. We're talking about a sizeable explosive volcanic eruption.

You might as well say it's a billion quadrazillion megatons, the numbers become meaningless beyond a point anyway.

Frankly, I personally feel it's rather distasteful to trivialise the weapons that killed tens of thousands of people (and may yet kill us all) in this way. "Oh yeah, well, MY imaginary friend could kill a BILLION people! With one breath!" etc etc.

[GodzillaLouise]

However, this is all irrelevant, since 10 megatons per breath is just a silly number, and there's no point trying to connect it to real mathematics.

For context, 10 megatons is the equivalent of about 60 Hiroshima bombs. Everyone and everything within 20 miles or so of it when it breathed would be killed. Anything within about 3-4 miles of it would be obliterated. The shockwave would be heard around the world. We're talking about a sizeable explosive volcanic eruption.

You might as well say it's a billion quadrazillion megatons, the numbers become meaningless beyond a point anyway.

Frankly, I personally feel it's rather distasteful to trivialise the weapons that killed tens of thousands of people (and may yet kill us all) in this way. "Oh yeah, well, MY imaginary friend could kill a BILLION people! With one breath!" etc etc.

Hm. There are, admittedly, other power outputs I’ve considered for my take on Godzilla’s atomic breath, many of which are way less extreme. However, there’s only one other one that I’m still considering using, but after this, I think it’s worth using as the power output for the atomic breath of my Godzilla: 17,500 Scioms-per-Second. A Sciom-per-Second is basically a fictional alternative unit to watts in my universe, and they are equal to 2.5 Gigawatts. I’ve done the math, and that comes up to 43,750 Gigawatts per shot of the atomic breath (please do note that the atomic breath is not an inhalation or an exhalation: it’s an energy blast made up of concentrated radiation).

Anyway, would changing the power output of the Atomic Breath blast from 10 megatons per second to 43,750 Gigawatts make it more calcuable?

[WeepingElf]

And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...

[Visions1]

Frankly, I personally feel it's rather distasteful to trivialise the weapons that killed tens of thousands of people (and may yet kill us all) in this way. "Oh yeah, well, MY imaginary friend could kill a BILLION people! With one breath!" etc etc.

I don't think atomic breath is so bad - I mean, it's Godzilla. I imagine Kaiju like that have been made for years.
As well, the number doesn't look intentional.

[Ahzoh]

I always interpreted Godzilla's breath as some kind of directed energy weapon and not some explosion emanated out of a mouth or dragonbreath.

[GodzillaLouise]

I always interpreted Godzilla's breath as some kind of directed energy weapon and not some explosion emanated out of a mouth or dragonbreath.

When you consider some dragons in fiction breathe stuff other than just fire, dragon’s breath isn’t necessarily a poor analog for the Atomic Breath, but yes, it’s more of an organic version of a directed energy weapon.

[Arayaz]

And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...

what

[WeepingElf]

And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...

what

There is a saying I have found several times on the Net: Each time real science is drawn into the discussion of a fantasy story, God kills a catgirl. Please be mindful of the catgirls.

[sangi39]

And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...

what

There is a saying I have found several times on the Net: Each time real science is drawn into the discussion of a fantasy story, God kills a catgirl. Please be mindful of the catgirls.

At least for me, this oddly kind of hits on the point, i.e. Godzilla isn't meant to be scientific. Sure, you can try to throw science into it (and there's definitely a somewhat growing move in fantast towards "hard" fantasy, I think, where everything need to either have hard an fast rules, or fall within the realms of "the known laws of physics"), but Godzilla is, at its core, the physical, breathing, embodiment of a force that is beyond the scope of human experience and comprehension. Godzilla is meant to be beyond science, beyond the world as we understand it, because that's exactly where Godzilla comes from (which Sal touched on) in the minds of the people who became aware of the destructive power of mankind's probing of the universe. We dug deep, and we released a monster on ourselves, which, once out in the world, is unstoppable

You can throw all the science you want at that, and sure it'll still be existentially terrifying, but, again, at least for me, that isn't Godzilla. Godzilla doesn't need to conform to the conservation of energy because, as far as the people on the ground are concerned, it's irrelevant. They're here, destroying buildings, and they cannot be stopped

[Arayaz]

And the LORD slaughters a host of catgirls...

what

There is a saying I have found several times on the Net: Each time real science is drawn into the discussion of a fantasy story, God kills a catgirl. Please be mindful of the catgirls.

In some cases this may be applicable, but many a fantasy story does try to take real science into account.

[GodzillaLouise]

Just want to put in some input, so please don’t take this the wrong way.

Anyway, why is everyone saying, in varying ways, that “Godzilla’s a fantasy series”? As a fan of the Godzilla franchise, I can say with confidence that, throughout the majority of the series’s history, it’s been more science fiction than fantasy. Sure, square cube law’s typically thrown out the window, but there’s been plenty of examples of the writers putting in an effort to explain Kaiju abilities and weaknesses while adhering to real science. Admittedly, most of the films since the early 2000s films of the series have made less of an effort, but I would never say there’s been no science fiction elements within those or the more recent films.

Now, if we were talking about certain other Kaiju franchises, I could see it. King Kong’s franchise is a good example of one I could see as fantasy, and it’s hardly because of the Skull Islanders.

[Arayaz]

Just want to put in some input, so please don’t take this the wrong way.

Anyway, why is everyone saying, in varying ways, that “Godzilla’s a fantasy series”? As a fan of the Godzilla franchise, I can say with confidence that, throughout the majority of the series’s history, it’s been more science fiction than fantasy. Sure, square cube law’s typically thrown out the window, but there’s been plenty of examples of the writers putting in an effort to explain Kaiju abilities and weaknesses while adhering to real science. Admittedly, most of the films since the early 2000s films of the series have made less of an effort, but I would never say there’s been no science fiction elements within those or the more recent films.

Now, if we were talking about certain other Kaiju franchises, I could see it. King Kong’s franchise is a good example of one I could see as fantasy, and it’s hardly because of the Skull Islanders.

Science fiction and fantasy are often two sides of the same coin. Fantasy involves magic, and science fiction involves advanced technology, but as Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ─ and they can have a lot of the same effects. The only mechanical difference between the two is that science fiction typically demands more justification than handwaving ─ so since you are, here, justifying it mathematically, science fiction may be a better label. But aside from that they're interchangeable aside from mood and setting and such.