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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morgenstern" data-source="post: 3076652" data-attributes="member: 5485">Binary or liquid propellants ARE chemical ones. It just proposses that they store/release more energy than gunpowder in a similar volume. The idea is to create a savings in weight - same sized ammo with more kick. In practice you also need better materials for the chambers, or the weapon gets heavier trying to properly contain and focus the energy into the projectile. You also have to consider that kick is kick, and that the weapon may need additional engineering to deal with the Newtonian consequences of a faster/heavier round going one direction... and the gun going the other.That's ussually how they keep the kick to a managable level. Or they may be discusing gauss weapons which have silly-high muzzle velocities. Either way you're looking at increased kinetic energy at delivery, while looking for equal or lesser weight at your end. For serious discussion you then get into questions of armor piercing, energy transfer, over-penetration, and resulting tissue trauma - topics that take on the qualites of religious argument despite the variety of data available...In fiction, yes <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. I imagine actual binary explosives may generate more joules per cubic cm than gunpowerder, with the appeal being they are more stable/safe than some explosives I know are more potent than gunpowder (which would be suicidal to put into a cartrige). You just have questions of how to mix it thoroughly before detonating it in a tolerable timeframe between pulling the trigger and expecting a bullet to come flying out of the barrel.Eh... maybe in space, or with certain other advances beyond the scope of current tech. "Helix Particle Beams" in my sci-fi game use paired particle beams of opposing charge to keep both beams coherant over greater distances. Scientific? faintly. It's loosely modeled after the electro/magnetic oscillation of photons (which sounds great on paper <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />). Plausible sounding? Ussually <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.Exactly as effective as your power supply. Any weapon is bound by how much oomph you can put in/get out. Chemical energy STORES energy very efficiently and can release it in a mostly efficient fashion. If you have uber-batteries, then weapons that run on electricity rather than shaped explosions will give a good acounting of themselves. Otherwise they end u confined to vehicles large enough to have powerplants to put the energy into the weapon.A rugged and reliable field laser isn't that beyond the scope of current engineering I'd say. Its just power issues again. In Farthest Star there are personal laser weapons called "Blazers", which is a corruption of "Blast Laser" which refers to them being charged by a chemical reaction rather than an electrical power source... In other words they still consume ammo.One question would be how do you keep the energy IN the plasma without it bleeding off? Some sort of vacuum (highly insulative) jacketing seems almost a must. So now your ammo is enormous relative to its yield. It seems generally easier (if slightly wasteful in its own way) to put the (thermal) energy charge into the ammo only when you are about to fire it, so it doesn't evaporate before you even shoot.Well, I hope this offers some ideas <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. Slug throwers will likely persist in most firm-to-hard sci-fi setting simply because they are a very efficient way of transfering killing concentrations of energy from point A to point B.</blockquote>

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