Earlier quoted context omitted.
"All visualizations were drawn/generated by me and code can be found in this project's github repo" Also, I feel it's not who the generator is that should concern you--it's the quality of the text. I would much rather read something that is clear, concise, and consistent regardless of the source.
The text is low quality because it is un-proofread LLM output.
Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
21–30 of 39 posts
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#22Not an average software engineer--beautiful page (imperfect spelling)! Why does detection scale as the 4th root of the RCS? Nice problem for the radiation theory part of a graduate electrodynamics class.
It shouldn't, under the assumptions they are opening up with. Inverse square law twice is appropriate for an approximation that the reflection is entirely diffuse because you assume that the diffuse reflection is uniform in all directions away from the illuminated surface. A single inverse square law is appropriate (with both distances added to each other before squaring) under the approximation that the reflection i…
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#23Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#24If I remember from my numerical analysis days, it was the ease of numerical computing that necessitated the facets. Think 3D graphics from the 90s. All polygons.
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#25The whole mirror analogy for angular facets breaks down when you realize airplane is a moving object and at some point in its trajectory, one of the facets is likely to be facing the radar (maximum cross section). If I remember from my numerical analysis days, it was the ease of numerical computing that necessitated the facets. Think 3D graphics from the 90s. All polygons.
Anyway, I'd imagine the part that is an integral over the surface becomes a finite sum, the post doesn't say but it seems like a reasonable guess.
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#26Not an average software engineer--beautiful page (imperfect spelling)! Why does detection scale as the 4th root of the RCS? Nice problem for the radiation theory part of a graduate electrodynamics class.
It shouldn't, under the assumptions they are opening up with. Inverse square law twice is appropriate for an approximation that the reflection is entirely diffuse because you assume that the diffuse reflection is uniform in all directions away from the illuminated surface. A single inverse square law is appropriate (with both distances added to each other before squaring) under the approximation that the reflection i…
There's still a strong angular dependence in the reflection amplitude; 1/r^2 fall-off does not imply isotropic distribution.
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#27few things I'd like to clarify: - yes, I do use claude quite a bit. I don't have much background in frontend design or do it for work (which is mostly low level perception and controls, ironically something I'm seldom able to use AI for), so it makes tasks for me way more accessible. I try, as much as possible, to use LLM content to increase the creativity of a human behind it as much as possible (all the drawings on the site are drawn by visitors, for example, and I actually storyboarded the site's design by hand before implementing it).
- for writing, it is for better or worse mostly me, but I'm starting to see the parts that unravel. I've always been known to be rather verbose, and I tried to use LLMs to suggest strategies to make my drafts more palatable to a reader. I feel in retrospect that these attempts may have added a synthetic tinge. Mostly everything I write about is something I first make code for and investigate in my own time, without any expectation of explaining; there is a lot of real effort that's disproportionately put there over packaging.
This article was genuinely my first time making something educational of the sort, and I had my physics major friends checking in and auditing, and was gleefully showing progress wherever I could. I used manim for the first time to make those very shitty looking animations as well. I did not want to nor claim to look like an expert on this. I just wanted to show an exploration I did in my free time earlier, to maybe spark a little bit of interest in one of my random discord peers regarding the subject matter. I can say that for the close group of people around me in real life who this article was originally intended for, that I was successful. tl;dr I'm now somewhat embarassed that I've immortalized and publicized my lackluster first attempt at making educational content
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#28The whole mirror analogy for angular facets breaks down when you realize airplane is a moving object and at some point in its trajectory, one of the facets is likely to be facing the radar (maximum cross section). If I remember from my numerical analysis days, it was the ease of numerical computing that necessitated the facets. Think 3D graphics from the 90s. All polygons.
Re: Recreating the math behind the first stealth aircraft
#29Not an average software engineer--beautiful page (imperfect spelling)! Why does detection scale as the 4th root of the RCS? Nice problem for the radiation theory part of a graduate electrodynamics class.
> Why does detection scale as the 4th root of the RCS? Because the power returned to the antenna scales as the -4th power of the distance to the target, and detection depends on that power being greater than some threshold. If the fourth power (rather than the square) is surprising, think of the reflection as re-transmitting the power that arrived at the target. The incident power on the target goes as RCS/r^2, and t…