Calc War of the Worlds (original) - The Heat Ray

Calculations
War of the Worlds said:
Then suddenly we saw a rush of smoke far away up the river, a puff of smoke that jerked up into the air and hung; and forthwith the ground heaved under foot and a heavy explosion shook the air, smashing two or three windows in the houses near, and leaving us astonished.
The Martians Heat Ray shakes the ground enough to break windows. It does this again later.
War of the Worlds said:
Then, after an interminable time, as it seemed to us, crouching and peering through the hedge, came a sound like the distant concussion of a gun. Another nearer, and then another. And then the Martian beside us raised his tube on high and discharged it, gunwise, with a heavy report that made the ground heave. The one towards Staines answered him. There was no flash, no smoke, simply that loaded detonation.
We can determine a minimum distance from the first one.
War of the Worlds said:
Then, as the Martian towered overhead scarcely a couple of hundred yards away, I flung myself forward under the surface.
200 yards is equal to 182.88m. Breaking windows matches a scale VI on the mercalli scale, which translates to 5 on the richter scale.
modified_mercalli_vs_richter.gif
Playing around with the impact calculator until I got the right results, we get 1.63 x 10^16 joules for 183.00km. That's a lot more than the actual range, so we have to divide it to get our results proper.

183000/182.88 = 1000.65617

E = 1.63 x 10^16/1000.65617
= 1.62893114e13 joules

Then you divide it by 10000.

E = 1.62893114e13/10000
= 1628931140 joules
= 0.3893238862333 tons of TNT

Final Results
The Martians Heat Ray = 0.389 tons of TNT

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Stocking Anarchy
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