The mol question started bugging me today, so I decided to run numbers on it.
Molecular mass of air is ~29 g/mol.
SSL air density is ~1.225 kg/m^3
Therefore, under SSL assumption, 42.24 mol/m^3 air.
The implosion seal grabs a 20 m radius sphere of air. There are two general use cases: air burst above 20 m, and surface burst. The demonstrated forest clearing was accomplished by a surface burst, so it only grabbed a 20m hemisphere of air.
Vol_in_airburst = 4/3 * pi * 20^3 = 33510 m^3
Vol_in_surfaceburst = 33510/2 = 16755 m^3
The first volume matches well with the original estimate, and the 42.14 correction is close to the rounded correction that was used above. However, unless the implosion seals got launched 20 m in the air above ground zero, we actually need to run this with a hemispherical air capture.
Using the telephone pole snapping analogy tells us 175 kg of TNT will snap all trees within a 15 m radius. Use this, along with the number of molecules in a 20m hemisphere of air, and return to the trusty Volume Compression formula...
Vf = 16755 * e^(-7.32e8 / (42.24*16755*8.3144598 *293)) = 10959 m^3
This Vf is also a hemisphere, so the spherical volume would be 21918 m^3
Rf = (Vf*3/(4*pi))^(1/3) = 17.4 m
I am not a 100% sure that trees that are already within the sphere of effect would be snapped, as they wouldn't have the load imbalance from an impinging/reflecting shock on one side and standard atmosphere on the other.
@OliWhail
I'd be willing to calculate what intake volume would be required for a 1-2 m (I suspect somewhere on the order of 3-8 m) release radius that also yields a 175 kg TNT equivalent detonation, as I'm reasonably sure that would look more like a 1-zone of effect lung-burst attack coupled with the multiple-zone effect explosion.
Id probably model it as something like (2 x roll successes) to dodge and Weapon: 8 in the local zone, with regular dodge against Weapon 8-2 per zone radial to the initial zone for other zones - so it acts a substantial explosive out to 4 zones radius. (for one implosion seal. stacked is a whole-nother ballpark)
