--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "chrysaetos@..." <chrysaetos@...> wrote:
>
> Nate wrote:
> > Mmmmmm, gauss rifles. *drool* That would be so perfect for a sniper. No report, no muzzle flash to give away your position, next to no recoil. Not even a heat signature from a hot barrel to give it away. I want one!
> >
>
> That doesn't add up, physically speaking. Assuming you're talking about
> a hypersonic railgun/coilgun, it would have a report in the form of the
> bullet's sonic boom. Granted, that makes it hard to localize for a
> human ear, but there is currently in service at least one sniper
> detection/location device that uses a set of microphones to track the
> path of a supersonic slug -- which is to say, hard for a human ear, easy
> for a computer. There would certainly be recoil. If you're
> accelerating a physical object, there's no way to escape the equal and
> opposite force. The heat signature would depend entirely on the
> efficiency of the magnets and such used to fire. This device has to
> deliver an enormous amount of energy to the slug very quickly to
> accelerate it from zero to hypersonic in the space of a meter or so;
> that means its efficiency will be pretty lousy, and the magnets will
> heat up quite a bit with each shot. In an honest-to-god sniper rifle,
> it would probably need a supply of cryogenic coolant to keep the magnets
> superconductive and get rid of the waste heat from each shot. With
> modern technology, gunpowder -- chemical energy in any form, that is --
> is the most efficient and compact way to store energy. Assuming
> "sufficiently advanced" technology like room-temp superconductors and
> arbitrarily compact energy storage, you can get away with more.
>
> Finally, keep in mind that a "needle gun" will tend to punch through an
> unarmored body without doing much damage. A heavy subsonic lead bullet
> is far more effective at killing an unarmored target than a small, fast
> round with equal kinetic energy. A small, fast penetrator is effective
> at passing through armor without delivering its energy, but it's equally
> good at passing through the target without doing so either.
> Alternatives:
> -You could use a charged needle. If you just used the needle to deliver
> a powerful electrical jolt, a small explosive charge, or some other
> unpleasant payload, you don't care what it does after it hits. You're
> relying on the payload to do the damage. (Poison isn't a good choice,
> because it'll tend to burn off from atmospheric friction and the needle
> would tend to sear its own wound.)
> -You could use something akin to a modern API round. It's a regular
> bullet made of soft metal with a hard penetrator in the center. Against
> flesh, it works like a regular bullet. Against armor, the soft metal
> stops and the penetrator continues on through, after heating up to
> ungodly temperature from the friction of having the lead coat stripped
> off. It won't hurt an armored target as much as the bullet would an
> unarmored one, but they'll know they've been kissed, so to speak.
> -Taking a page from modern antiarmor weapons, you could equip the bullet
> with a tandem warhead. Imagine a bullet shaped like a milk bottle. The
> body of the bottle is your regular bullet, which is a hollow-point or
> fragmenting design intended to deliver maximum energy in minimum
> distance. Normally that would be useless againt the simplest body
> armor, but the neck and tip of the bottle contain a small charge -- it
> could be akin to a HEAT explosive, or a tiny one-shot laser generator,
> or whatever. When the tip of the round strikes, it fires its payload,
> which clears a path for the next three inches or so. If they have body
> armor on, the rest of the bullet passes through this cleared channel and
> hits the guy inside. If they don't, well, the bullet hits them a little
> deeper than usual.
>
> --
>
> -----------------------------------------
> "Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day,
> but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest
> of his life."
> -- (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)
> -----------------------------------------
>
made this to continue the topic, for fear of moderator shutdown
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SW_AMA_Off-topicDiscussions/
and jim if you want me to take it down, then give me the say so
Received on Wed Nov 04 2009 - 14:53:05 CST