Halo: The Fall of Reach said:
The MAC—Magnetic Accelerator Cannon—was the Commonwealth’s main weapon. It fired a super-dense ferric tungsten shell. The tremendous mass and velocity of the projectile obliterated most ships on impact. Unlike the Archer missiles, a MAC round was an unguided projectile; the firing solution had to be perfect in order to hit the target—not an easy thing to do when both ships were moving rapidly.
Halo: The Fall of Reach said:
The lights on the bridge dimmed and the Commonwealth shuddered. The MAC bolt launched through space—a red-hot metal slug moving at thirty thousand meters per second.
Halo: Contact Harvest said:
But whereas the M99's light, semi-ferrous rounds were only a few millimeters long, a MAC slug was more than ten meters end-to-end, weighed one-hundred-sixty metric tons, and packed enough punch to penetrate the navy’s thickest Titanium-A armor plate."
Magnetic Accelerator Cannons are weapons used by the UNSC. The above seems simple enough; 120,000kg at 30,000m/s. Feed that through the
kinetic energy calculator and have you 7.200E+13 joules, or 17.2084130019 kilotons. Let's also get the speed of the shots too.
T = 30000m/1s
= 30,000/340.29
= Mach 88.1600987
We also have heavier rounds, weighing 600 tons.
Halo: First Strike said:
The MAC gun on this frigate was one of the largest weapons in the human arsenal. He wished they had rounds for it—he would've given anything to launch one of the six-hundred-ton depleted uranium projectiles at that Covenant cruiser.
That's 2.700E+14 joules, or 64.5315487572 kilotons. Now for the Super MACs.
Halo: The Fall of Reach said:
Some called them “Super” MAC guns or the “big stick.” Their linear accelerator coils were larger than a UNSC cruiser. They propelled a three-thousand-ton projectile at tremendous speed, and could reload within five seconds.
Halo: The Fall of Reach said:
There were twenty Super MAC guns in orbit. They could accelerate a three-thousand-ton projectile to point four-tenths the speed of light—and place that projectile with pinpoint accuracy.
T = 299792458 X 40/100
= 119916983m/s (40% C)
Using this
relativistic kinetic energy calculator, 3000 tons (3000000kg) at 40% the speed of light gives a result of 24560134699428333 megajoules, or 5.8700130734771347463 teratons.
Final Results
MAC rounds = 17.208 kilotons
MAC launching speed = Mach 88.160
MAC heavy rounds = 64.532 kilotons
Super MAC rounds (energy) = 5.870 teratons
Super MAC rounds (speed) = 40% C
