What are lower and upper limits?
Sometimes it is only possible to say that a quantity is more than a certain value; sometimes it is only possible to say that a quantity is less than a certain value. These are lower limits and upper limits respectively. For example, if we know how much energy it takes to destroy a planet, then we know that any planet-destroying weapon has an output matching or exceeding this lower limit. However without further information we can’t necessarily calculate whether it’s more powerful by a factor of a few times, thousands of times, billions of times, or more. If we calculate a lower limit on the energy needed for a turbolaser to vaporise an asteroid, we then conclude that the energy of the particular turbolaser shot was not less than a certain amount. This does not necessarily mean that the weapon was on its lowest power setting. Events and feats shown in the STAR WARS films indicate lower limits much more often than upper limits.
Sometimes it is only possible to say that a quantity is more than a certain value; sometimes it is only possible to say that a quantity is less than a certain value. These are lower limits and upper limits respectively. For example, if we know how much energy it takes to destroy a planet, then we know that any planet-destroying weapon has an output matching or exceeding this lower limit. However without further information we can’t necessarily calculate whether it’s more powerful by a factor of a few times, thousands of times, billions of times, or more. If we calculate a lower limit on the energy needed for a turbolaser to vaporise an asteroid, we then conclude that the energy of the particular turbolaser shot was not less than a certain amount. This does not necessarily mean that the weapon was on its lowest power setting. Events and feats shown in the STAR WARS films indicate lower limits much more often than upper limits. Each statistic given in these pages is noted as either a low
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