Re: Jon's Law / Kzinti Lesson / Exhaust as a Weapon

This more or less depends on nothing at all of the above and
everything
to do with the divergence angle of the rocket drive. This may
plausibly
be anywhere between 6 and 180 degrees. Anything up to 60 degrees
is still pretty efficient, but really fancy high power drives may have
larger divergence angles.

Aaah, I see. So "divergence angle" is the term I was looking for in my
previous posting, what I so clumsily described as "fanning out".
Having played a bit with the particle beam equation, I think that the
whole problem may have dissolved already: the higher the exhaust
temperature, the higher the divergence angle will be, thus spreading
out the jet power to a much larger area, making it effectively
harmless beyond a relatively modest safety distance.
.