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Some minor items that have appeared in my recent Rocket stories.
In case you're curious, species-specific Smart patches are for species with odd skin for the most part. A thicker patch is needed to adhere to fur or scales and aquatic races need different models. If you use a Smart patch made for, say, a space raccoon on a human, you may end up with a patch of raccoon fur. Read the label! The patches are still a great thing to have in a first aid kit since they are capable of at least helping someone not bleed out until further treatment can be administered. And of course they allow a novice to try to treat things like infections and minor stab wounds. They have limits though, since the issues with Rocket's implants were too severe for mere Smart patches to fix.
The inherent drawbacks to gauss weapons in a military setting are why there are still explosive-propelled slug throwers. Since you can recharge the magazine battery with a portal solar panel or other power source, though, they are excellent in survival situations since each magazine holds quite a few rounds and in desperate situations you can manually load a single projectile (anything metallic and cylindrical will more or less work) into the barrel. You also don't need to fiddle with propellant so it's much easier to make your own ammo.
In case you're curious, species-specific Smart patches are for species with odd skin for the most part. A thicker patch is needed to adhere to fur or scales and aquatic races need different models. If you use a Smart patch made for, say, a space raccoon on a human, you may end up with a patch of raccoon fur. Read the label! The patches are still a great thing to have in a first aid kit since they are capable of at least helping someone not bleed out until further treatment can be administered. And of course they allow a novice to try to treat things like infections and minor stab wounds. They have limits though, since the issues with Rocket's implants were too severe for mere Smart patches to fix.
The inherent drawbacks to gauss weapons in a military setting are why there are still explosive-propelled slug throwers. Since you can recharge the magazine battery with a portal solar panel or other power source, though, they are excellent in survival situations since each magazine holds quite a few rounds and in desperate situations you can manually load a single projectile (anything metallic and cylindrical will more or less work) into the barrel. You also don't need to fiddle with propellant so it's much easier to make your own ammo.
Category Artwork (Digital) / All
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There are hundreds of models. Cheap ones don't allow muzzle velocity to be altered at all since ~1,200 feet per second is good enough for most uses. More expensive models have more bells and whistles, things like Gauss sniper rifles have variable muzzle velocity and even homing ammo.
Smart patches certainly aren't free but when you mass produce them in enough volume their individual price gets low enough that the common people can afford them. I'd guess each patch costs $2-$10 but that seems like a small expense when your little raccoon friend has a nasty imflamed spot next to his cybernetic implant and refuses to go to a doctor.
First law of motion. You're accelerating the projectile and there has to be an opposing force. As the coils pull the bullet forward the opposing force goes into the coil, which is mechanically linked to the chassis of the pistol. There is less recoil since a lot of a normal pistol's energy is wasted in the muzzle flash, but Gauss weapons do have SOME recoil.
Sure, but I would expect that A) given the lighter weight of the projectile and B) the near non-existence of kinetic/thermal energy being generated, that recoil would be functionally non-existent and furthermore offset by the weight of the weapon itself. Granted, I'm just squibbling over minor nonsense because I'm bored and like to bicker :P but it's just my random thought of the day.
Then again again, I would also anticipate the weapon itself would be considerably lighter, as it doesn't need to survive a tiny explosion every time it fires.
Then again again, I would also anticipate the weapon itself would be considerably lighter, as it doesn't need to survive a tiny explosion every time it fires.
The honest fact is I don't know how much recoil it would generate. Some Googling seems to show that pretty much everyone agrees there should be some but there is debate as to how much. 1/4 seemed a reasonable number that saved me from having to do a lot more research. 83
You could accelerate the entire bullet, casing and all, as long as there was no "lip" at the back to get in the way. A caseless bullet could work for this. The drawback is that one reason Gauss magazines can hold so many rounds is there's no need for propellant so you just have a stack of bullets. I didn't do the math but 40 is proabably a conservative number of rounds in a magazine.
I think they're occasionally used in gauss mode, when they want to be silent.
Oh, and I guess heavy metals like lead or depleted uranium aren't particularly magnetic, maybe could jacket them in steel but that's gonna be a bit more expensive than either "normal bullets" or flechettes.
Oh, and I guess heavy metals like lead or depleted uranium aren't particularly magnetic, maybe could jacket them in steel but that's gonna be a bit more expensive than either "normal bullets" or flechettes.
One selling point of the Gauss weapons I posit is that they are cheap and extremely durable. You can recharge the magazines with a solar panel and make your own bullets and the lack of moving parts means all you really need to do is make sure the fan doesn't stop working, and even if it does you can still fire a few shots and just let it cool off. The weapons used by the mercs in Schlock probably cost a lot more than the Walmart brand shown here. 83
Nit: The noise is probably actually inverter whine, rather than capacitor whine. That's the noise you hear when a camera flash or electric car or electric train is getting ready to do its thing.
The inverter is usually stepping up the relatively low voltage you get from the battery (or whatever) to the relatively high voltage you need to do something interesting. To do that, it uses a transformer that operates somewhere in or near the audio frequency range; the high frequency lets the transformer be smaller. The windings and laminations in most all transformers are *supposed* to be stationary, but a lot of times, they will move a little as current flows through them. This movement produces the whine that you hear.
The More You Know ===* :D
The inverter is usually stepping up the relatively low voltage you get from the battery (or whatever) to the relatively high voltage you need to do something interesting. To do that, it uses a transformer that operates somewhere in or near the audio frequency range; the high frequency lets the transformer be smaller. The windings and laminations in most all transformers are *supposed* to be stationary, but a lot of times, they will move a little as current flows through them. This movement produces the whine that you hear.
The More You Know ===* :D
Its called capacitor whine even though its not actualy the capacitor makeing the sound becase its only ever heard in devices that have such capacitors and while alot of people tend to have a rough idea of wat a capacitor is [a form of batery that holds a large amount of charge and dumps it all at once instead of over time] far fewer know what an inverter is
and also your gauss pistal would likely have the same reciol as a gun that has a muzzle break on it, which isnt a 3 fourths reduction, the reason why is the only recoil factor it gets rid of is the expanding gasses...newtonian physics still apply, you push something forward, even with a magnet, and it pushes back with equal force, and magnetic induction launchers like rail and gauss weaponry push forward 'hard' theres a reason why rail guns are mounted to heavy ships and vehiciles
and also your gauss pistal would likely have the same reciol as a gun that has a muzzle break on it, which isnt a 3 fourths reduction, the reason why is the only recoil factor it gets rid of is the expanding gasses...newtonian physics still apply, you push something forward, even with a magnet, and it pushes back with equal force, and magnetic induction launchers like rail and gauss weaponry push forward 'hard' theres a reason why rail guns are mounted to heavy ships and vehiciles
A bit more research makes me agree with you. The recoil might even be worse because a gauss pistol is lighter than a chemically powered slug thrower. Maybe some sort of internal counterweight that is somehow snapped backward as the bullet is propelled forward to cancel out some of the recoil?
all the guns in the mass effect game are basicly rail guns but they reduce there overall recoil by useing mass effect feilds to change how much things weigh in and around them, causing the recoil to become equivalent to a normal firearm even though the comparative speeds and force involved are far higher, space ship mounted mass cannons are on record as having the potential impact force of the astroid that wiped out the dinsaurs
as for how to counter the recoil inside the gun, thats a problem that is as old as the science of balistics itself...we have been trying to do that for hundreds of years...problem we always seem to encounter though is anything that reduces the recoil of a gun [brache barrels, suppresors ect] also reduces the stoping power of the bullet preportionaly....its a rather annoying little problem to say the least
and when were dealing with tech that is so new as magnetic induction coil baased weaponry then the things get even harder to figure out
as for how to counter the recoil inside the gun, thats a problem that is as old as the science of balistics itself...we have been trying to do that for hundreds of years...problem we always seem to encounter though is anything that reduces the recoil of a gun [brache barrels, suppresors ect] also reduces the stoping power of the bullet preportionaly....its a rather annoying little problem to say the least
and when were dealing with tech that is so new as magnetic induction coil baased weaponry then the things get even harder to figure out
Ah well, my lack of understanding of how gauss weapons really work doesn't change their use in the stories at all. I don't delve deeply enough into that in the fiction for it to be a problem. It's only when you try to decide how they would really work that you start to run into problems. 83
I have to ask, assuming that a gauss pistol still fires metal slugs at ~8270 feet per second (2520 m/s) what applications would that other than as an anti-material weapon? After all hitting a humanoid with that much kinetic energy would at bear minimum cause life changing injuries if not tearing the body apart outright.
I can't imagine any need for that sort of velocities. 1,000-1,200 feet per second appears to be about midrange for a current pistol and is perfectly adequate for killing people. Higher velocities would make for better armor penetration but more recoil, more energy consumption and so on. Gauss RIFLES would presumably have higher velocities for better range and penetration but even modern rifles generally fire rounds with less than 3,000 fps.
There are several reasons why lower muzzle velocities are more likely. Recoil and power consumption are the main ones. It's been explained to me that though intuitively you'd think Gauss weapons would have a lot less recoil it's actually likely to be nearly the same as a propellant driven rifle. So unless the weapon is heavy, cancels momentum somehow, is fixed in place AND has enormous power reserves velocities like the ones you're considering probably aren't either necessary or desirable.
There are several reasons why lower muzzle velocities are more likely. Recoil and power consumption are the main ones. It's been explained to me that though intuitively you'd think Gauss weapons would have a lot less recoil it's actually likely to be nearly the same as a propellant driven rifle. So unless the weapon is heavy, cancels momentum somehow, is fixed in place AND has enormous power reserves velocities like the ones you're considering probably aren't either necessary or desirable.
Yeah, my initial thoughts involved Newton's 3rd law also kind of this (https://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&.....?v=TgZp2s3VXrw) and how firing that might remove your arm.
Yeah, the recoil goes into the magnetic coils and they are mechanically linked to the pistol. Some sort of counterweight that is moved forward as the pistol fires might kill some of the recoil but even with that there's an awful lot of kinetic energy to get rid of at near-railgun velocities.
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