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Navy Railgun Tests Leading to Ship Superweapon by 2020
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 5836569" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>The need to steer is largely dependent on relative speed and distance to target. If the target's pretty much sitting still, a straight-line path is fine, as the target can't get out of the way before the projectile gets there. And these projectiles are intended to go twice as fast as an SR-71.</p><p></p><p>That being said, the article makes it seem that these are intended to take the place of standard cannon and ship to ship guns and ship to shore missiles.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In terms of energy, the 33Mj railgun would be like a 33 ton car, moving at 100 mph. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ah, but there's two things you're probably not taking into account - the projectile isn't a car, and there's more to impact than energy.</p><p></p><p>A car is a relatively lightweight framework made to crumple if it hits something - the car absorbs a lot of it's own energy of collision. A 33 ton car would be like.. a stack of cars 2 cars high, two cars wide, and eight cars long. Move that at 100 miles per hour.</p><p></p><p>And now put that in a solid slug that you can hold in your hands. Instead of an impact area of something like 100 square feet, the impact area is the size of your palm. Rather than weighing 33 tons, you can lift it. And instead of moving at 100 mph, it is moving several times the speed of sound. That energy is *concentrated*.</p><p></p><p>The car analogy speaks to energy, but the energy of collision is by no means the only issue. Momentum also matters, and how that momentum and energy is transferred to the target also matters. For example:</p><p></p><p>A one-ton car, moving at 30 mph has over 75000 Joules of kinetic energy. If it hits a human dead on, that human may well be dead, but might just be seriously injured. Folks survive getting hit by cars. </p><p></p><p>A bullet from a .357 magnum has only 750 Joules of kinetic energy when it leaves the gun. That's 1% of the energy of the energy of the car, but with a hit dead on, a human is still grievously injured, quite possibly dead. </p><p></p><p>How that energy is delivered matters. A lot.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 5836569, member: 177"] The need to steer is largely dependent on relative speed and distance to target. If the target's pretty much sitting still, a straight-line path is fine, as the target can't get out of the way before the projectile gets there. And these projectiles are intended to go twice as fast as an SR-71. That being said, the article makes it seem that these are intended to take the place of standard cannon and ship to ship guns and ship to shore missiles. In terms of energy, the 33Mj railgun would be like a 33 ton car, moving at 100 mph. Ah, but there's two things you're probably not taking into account - the projectile isn't a car, and there's more to impact than energy. A car is a relatively lightweight framework made to crumple if it hits something - the car absorbs a lot of it's own energy of collision. A 33 ton car would be like.. a stack of cars 2 cars high, two cars wide, and eight cars long. Move that at 100 miles per hour. And now put that in a solid slug that you can hold in your hands. Instead of an impact area of something like 100 square feet, the impact area is the size of your palm. Rather than weighing 33 tons, you can lift it. And instead of moving at 100 mph, it is moving several times the speed of sound. That energy is *concentrated*. The car analogy speaks to energy, but the energy of collision is by no means the only issue. Momentum also matters, and how that momentum and energy is transferred to the target also matters. For example: A one-ton car, moving at 30 mph has over 75000 Joules of kinetic energy. If it hits a human dead on, that human may well be dead, but might just be seriously injured. Folks survive getting hit by cars. A bullet from a .357 magnum has only 750 Joules of kinetic energy when it leaves the gun. That's 1% of the energy of the energy of the car, but with a hit dead on, a human is still grievously injured, quite possibly dead. How that energy is delivered matters. A lot. [/QUOTE]
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