General > Discussion
Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
babunito:
Continuation #2:
Additional problem with rotating in the loop particles must be well familiar to anybody who tried to move around a high rpm gyroscope. It would require two perfectly co-axial rotating in opposite direction streams of particles to cancel all of those funny angular momentum effects (akin to rotating in opposite direction helicopter blades). One can conceive two co-axial superconductive toroidal inductors with ionized molecules rotating in opposite directions in each. If the same number of particles is released every time from both inductors, they will compensate each other's angular momentum at all times during happy hunting session. Dan and blondandy should correct me if my assumptions are not warranted by laws of nature (in addition to limitations of current technology).
DanielOR:
Babunito,
good to hear you, man. It sounds like a beam of particles in itself is even less deadly that I expected (due to a very small cross section). had no idea about the Foulerines though. Yet another application of carbon nanotubes and nanoballs - Foulerine shrapnel.
Winter:
--- Quote from: babunito on June 02, 2008, 05:16:20 am ---Daniel, I concur with all the points you've made. In any case, even if I had some doubts, I would not have questioned you, since you are the one who still is active in the trade, while I moved to other pastures long ago.
Small effective interaction radius of the elementary particles makes them not the best candidates for shooting at fluffy organics. While the idea of blocking the accelerator's beam is far from brightest, the damage is done only thanks to millions of passes (Dan please correct me if I am the order of the magnitude off) of the particle cloud through the blocking genius within what would seem to us a fraction of a second. Heavily ionized and huge molecules with small density (like buckyballs or other fullerenes) are robust enough to sustain high stresses during acceleration and will have much bigger interaction radii for such applications. Due to huge initial momentum they should be lethal over much bigger distances compared to conventional bullets.
--- End quote ---
This is good stuff, I may use it in a wee update of the PBW articles if you don't mind.
Regards,
Winter
babunito:
I stand corrected by Daniel - "cross section" is the proper scientific term for "interaction radius".
Does wiki define one way or the other the nature of the bullets used in conventional guns one starts with? For what it is worth, it might make sense to avoid references to the metal based bullets. Due to their rotation (added for higher precision while flying through air), the combination of strong static electric field (to induce opposite charges on bullet tips) and short, but extremely intense magnetic pulse can deflect the bullet or even divert it back at the shooter (example of theoretically plausible future shielding technology). With the level of slimy's technology they certainly would have been able to exploit this. There is a good reason for even modern militaries currently are considering lighter Si (ceramic based slugs) or other stable elements from the lower right corner of periodic table.
I will leave it to Daniel to validate this suggestion.
Darkpriest667:
you guys said energy stored in a magazine to my last energy based question.
I may not have a masters in physics... but i know it takes a hell of a lot more energy output than is man portable.. possibly even by 2084 standards.
I heard earlier the mention of the mri
and this post by daniel
blondandy - just to add to your post...the bit of physics we are ignoring here is the strength of the magnetic field needed to make the damn particles go in a circle of a radius of an inch or two...For comparison: real accelerator rings are miles (often >10 mi) in diameter and involve magnets the size of furniture pieces. And those are electric magnets that draw a fair bit of current. Which is why most national labs have own energy sources (i.e. nuclear power plants).
so you want my soldiers walking around with mini nuclear power plant backpacks? im still waiting for you guys to figure out a new energy solution... I think it may be more pertinent to go with the antimatter theory that the game is producing... only an antimatter reaction would have enough energy to throw these particles the way you guys are talking about..
Again im an amatuer in the physics department but my buddies and I who are not too stupid have tossed around the idea of particle accelerators before.. and it always comes down to having enough energy to do it..
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