Mecha, IRL: Doable, or no...?

[Silas Parrish]

Due to the ongoing nature of this discussion between Ky, Arashi, and I...I decided to drag all of you other Gundam fans into it.
We're discussing the practicality of mecha, in real-life situations. Are they practical? Yes, or no? And why do you think so?
We can do this with a point at a time, leaving room for individual rebuttals, or you can post one big paragraph explaining why or why not, in regards to mecha practicality in a real, near-future military. Arashi...would you care to start?  

[Silas Parrish]

Yes

Gundam Arashi
Ky of the Sacred Knights
Utena-Douji  

[Silas Parrish]

No

Silas Parrish
Brokensoul2241
Mr_BlueCamo  

[Silas Parrish]

Discussion
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[Frog Apocalypse]

Space would be a practical place to use them. Cause if you can grab it to shoot it, then you don't have to worry about wasting ammunition trying to shoot it while it is moving.  

[Silas Parrish]

I'm still not sure what that means. Can you elaborate a bit?  

[Frog Apocalypse]

Ok, instead of trying to shoot something moving, and missing alot, which uses up valuable ammunition, you can grab it, and shoot it at point blank range, saving that ammunition. So, something like the Zeong would be practical.  

[Silas Parrish]

That's only assuming that the enemy is also using mecha. If you're the only one out there in a giant humanoid robot, your a** will be swiss cheese when the fighters are scrambled. No grabbing to be worried about.  

[Frog Apocalypse]

If you can maneuver, no need to worry about becoming swiss cheese, add some heavy armor, and bam! No touchy me. With some good thrusters you could even keep up with the fighters.  

[Silas Parrish]

Umm...no you couldn't. Density has to increase exponentially with mass, in order to maintain structural integrity. Massive weight=massive inertia. Massive inertia=massive amounts of energy necessary to move massive object. It's not a point of "good enough thrusters." You cannot move something that big, that fast, and outmaneuver something as small as a fighter. Where do you keep the fuel for such a propulsion system, anyway? And let's say for a moment you have "good enough thrusters." What happens if apply that tech to fighters? Is the benefit of such technology not infinitely more useful there, rendering the benefit to mecha moot? And increasing your armor only makes this problem worse. That mass, having a s**t-ton of inertia, and no gravity to act upon it, will tear itself apart if you try to move it with the same velocity you'd move a fighter. Your a** is swiss cheese, either way.  

[Frog Apocalypse]

The swiss cheese depends on if they can get through the armor, and dont forget the potential use of carbon nanotubes in the future, lightweight, and hard as crap.  

[Silas Parrish]

Be that as it may...there will always exist a sword to pierce every shield. Also...carbon nanotubes are impossible to chain together. They're cool and everything...by useless, since they can only be constructed on the microscopic level. Besides...you can't construct the whole machine out of them. The weapons of the enemy will just cause the weaker materials to break. Sure, the nanotubes will be intact...but the material surrounding them will not. You'll just have a lump of carbon floating around in space.  

[Mr_BlueCamo]

i will have to say that since we have fighter planes and if we got space planes it would be much better than giant robots.  

[Silas Parrish]

Not to mention nothing bigger than a fighter can actually hope to keep up with one.  

[Where is Carmen Sandiego]

I dont know s**t about physics in space and s**t so I'm not even gona try.

But a mecha on the ground I can work with.

Have any of u seen Gundam 00 in the very beginning of the first episode.
Those mechas are intierly possible. heart