Alright so...today I'm gonna be trying to answer an age-old question at the OBD:
How powerful are Frieza's planet busters?
You all know the tons of repetitive debates regarding Frieza being able to DET versus chain reaction bust, so I won't repeat them. The crucial question of importance here is to find out how large Namek was, and thus how hard it would be to destroy. So with that in mind, let's take a look at some scans that will give us a relative clue.
First let's establish some things:
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Vegeta's power here was established to be 24,000 in the present arc and 18,000 back in the Saiyan Saga. We all know what that means.
Continuing below, Krillin and Dende take off at "top speed:"
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We then get this:
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Although this isn't exactly the best to use for a size estimate (since Krillin obviously wasn't flying at top speed), it's somewhat telling.
Chapter 270 gives us another clue as to how big Namek is.
Gohan and Krillin had been flying very suppressed and slow to avoid Vegeta, yet flying at top speed would still take them an hour after a four day journey. Note that they changed location from their first hideout, which is where we will turn soon.
Later on in chapter 292, Gohan stated the distance to Guru's.
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These are all rather strong hints regarding Namek's size.
Yet, the real clue lies here:
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This is in chapter 265 after Guru unlocks some of Krillin's potential.
This is the furthest distance known in the arc. Thus it should be used as the best indicator. Krillin was stated to have a power level of around 10,000:
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This of course, is lower than Saiyan Saga Vegeta's level of 18,000, but higher than base Goku's 8,000 after training with King Kai.
Goku of course, is around Mach 29 on Snake Way. Krillin after his power up on Namek would be at least that much.
Now let's crunch some numbers.
Mach 29 is 9,952.8 m/s or 9.9528 km/s.
As there are 3,600 seconds in an hour, this means that Krillin was flying at a speed of 35,830.08 kilometers per hour.
35,830.08 x 2 = 71,660.16.
Assuming that Gohan and Bulma's hideout was on the opposite side of the planet (which is actually quite a conservative assumption), it would mean that Krillin crossed half the planetary circumference.
Thus Namek's circumference would be 143,320.32 kilometers.
Using this circle and sphere calculator, inputting this circumference nets a diameter of 45620.274747024465 kilometers.
Now I'll once again turn back to an old friend of mine, the Planetary Parameter Calculator (seriously I've used this thing in so many calcs it's like family ).
Let's get the easy part out of the way first. Under any gravity the planetary volume is 4.971E+22 or 49710000000000000000000 or forty-nine sextillion, seven hundred ten quintillion m^3. This is 45.7 times larger than Earth's volume of 1,087,000,000,000,000,000,000 or one sextillion, eighty-seven quintillion m^3.
Now for the GBE.
Two things to consider here, which will give a high and low end. The low end would be assuming that Namek was only 1G due to the fact that Bulma was able to stand and walk freely on the planet. The high end would assume an equivalent density to Earth (which it is somewhat interesting to note that Namek had no real large-scale rock formations to speak of, something one would expect of planets with higher gravity than Earth).
Anyway, the low end is 1.026E+34 joules as a minimum GBE. Earth's GBE is 2.4e32 joules.
1.026E+34/2.4e32 = 42.75.
To get the higher end, we'll assume a similar density to Earth. Earth's density is about 5,501 kg/m^3.
To get a similar density, we'll divide Namek's diameter by Earth's and increase the gravity accordingly.
45620.274747024465/12,756.2 = 3.5.
Increasing the gravity by 3.5 times and you get a density of 5,383 kg/m^3, which is slightly less than Earth.
The GBE for this is 1.257E+35 joules.
1.257E+35/2.4e32 = 523.75.
Recap:
Diameter: 45620.274747024465 (3.5 times larger than Earth's)
Circumference: 143,320.32 (3.5 times larger than Earth's)
Low end (1G) planetary GBE: 42.75 times greater than Earth's.
High end (similar density) planetary GBE: 523.75 times greater than Earth's.
Either way, Namek is significantly harder to destroy than Earth.
What does this say about Frieza busting Namek? Nothing really. But it does seem rather plausible that he can bust Earth-sized or smaller planets via DET.
You guys seriously owe me. I managed to go out with a friend, see Act of Valor,, (which was pretty good BTW), get a drink, and still come back and do this all in one day.
