Worst "science" movie

[Rackhir]

"Much slower" and "negligible" are not the same thing.

Didn't say it was negligible, however in scenes like the aformentioned Firefly "guns don't work in space" bit they aren't in space for days at a time, more like minutes. I think you can ignore the problem of cooling for that sort of time frame, just don't try licking the gun with your tongue.

However, for some things, you're absolutely correct, that cooling isn't the problem. But then, heating may be the problem. Thereis some tendency for automatic weapons to jam as they fire, due to various parts heating and expanding. If the weapon heats due to friction of it's parts, that process wil tend to be exacerbated.

Assumming proper mainainance, friction isn't an issue with automatic weapons. You have lots of little explosions (the gunpowder) going off which is where the heat that causes the expansion and distortions in parts comes from. It could conceiveably be a problem for a lasting firefight in space, since you would would have trouble dissapating the heat for the reasons I pointed out above. But then again its perfectly possible to deal with that sort of problem if you simply take it into account in designing the weapon.

But, most weapons aren't designed for long duration automatic fire in any situation. You need to be able to replace the barrel on any weapon which will be sustaining a high rate of fire for an extended time period, since it is where most of the heat is generated and remains. This can lead to premature detonation of the cartridge as well or the ammo "Cooking off" as it is more colorfully refered to.

Also, consider what happens to the weapon if you do let it cool down - the metal has a tendency to become more brittle as the temperature drops. And, as you then rapidly heat some parts up to operating temperature you get larger thermal expansion stresses.

Weapons like rifles and pistols are tested in artic conditions (Try reading up on the development history of the M16 some time) where it can get very very cold, not absolute zero cold, but then again in the artic you have to deal with convection heat loss which is probably more difficult to deal with than the radiative cooling you have to take
into account in space.

Engineering for space can be tricky business...

Yes it can, but most problems in space design are irrelevant for short periods of time.

The oil would probably boil in a vacuum or near vacuum instead.

Not if it was a good lubricant. Boiling is a highly undesireable characteristic in a lubricant. Its great if you want to dissapate heat, since it can absorb a tremendous amount of heat, but a good lubricant would not be designed to boil. Particularly a lubricant that would have to operate in a high temperature enviroment like a weapon.

 

[jasper]

Did you ever actually watch this movie or did someone just tell you about it and you just wanted to attempt a cutesy quote about 'the Hollywood crowd'? This is the one with Jason Robards where people die hideous slow deaths from radiation poisoning because they were 'lucky' enough not to wind up as shadows on a wall, where we see Kansas City wiped off the face of the Earth, rubble and fires and destruction everywhere... that movie. Probably the most realistic portrayal we've seen yet of what even a limited nuclear attack would do.

Yes I watching the night it air way back then. And remember all the hype. And while it had some good actors in. I thought was cheesy antinuke movie. Still do. But to be fair I may get out the cheap bin if I see and see how 20 years of difference makes it.

 

[Someone]

Not if it was a good lubricant. Boiling is a highly undesireable characteristic in a lubricant. Its great if you want to dissapate heat, since it can absorb a tremendous amount of heat, but a good lubricant would not be designed to boil. Particularly a lubricant that would have to operate in a high temperature enviroment like a weapon.

Hence the "probably" part. I don´t know a lot about lubricants, but if you use one that behaves like a fluid it´ll boil when the vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure: in other words, you can make a liquid boil raising the temperature or lowering the pressure (or both). But I think there are lubricants that are not fluids in the temperature range we´re speakin of, so the lubrication of a gun designed to fire in space shouldn´t be a problem.

 

[Rel]

Hence the "probably" part. I don´t know a lot about lubricants, but if you use one that behaves like a fluid it´ll boil when the vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure: in other words, you can make a liquid boil raising the temperature or lowering the pressure (or both). But I think there are lubricants that are not fluids in the temperature range we´re speakin of, so the lubrication of a gun designed to fire in space shouldn´t be a problem.

Kudos to you, sir. I never thought that someone (heh, get it! ) could use the word "lubricant" that many times in a single post without it violating the grandma rule.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I would like to nominate *any* film produced by the Sci Fi Channel. It's science *fiction*, yes, but I would like to see some tiny amount of actual science in one of their films someday. Not to mention good acting, writing, and production values.

Sweet mercy, their movies are bad! If it weren't for Battlestar Galactica, I'd never even turn that channel on.

 

[Fast Learner]

I actually saw it upon the recommendation of a college professor of mine. I couldn't have been more disappointed in the movie. I found out later that he hadn't actually seen it but was going on a relative of his recommendation... I told him that to me it amounted to a long advertisement for Transcendental Mediation (not that there is anything wrong with that, I just felt I was misled)... he was kind of deflated after that...

It wasn't about TM, though. If it was an ad for anything, it was for Ramtha, the purportedly channeled entity.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I don´t know a lot about lubricants

This may end up as a .sig file somewhere. I'm just sayin'.

 

[Someone]

You all have a dirty mind.

 

[Rel]

You all have a dirty mind.

It's what I do.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

It wasn't about TM, though. If it was an ad for anything, it was for Ramtha, the purportedly channeled entity.

There was enough of it that was exactly about TM's teachings, it wasn't even funny. The DC Crime Study, for instance, was a TM scheme through and through. They had on a physicist from the Maharishi University, a school founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of TM.

As much as Ramtha was a focus, TM was right behind it/her/him(?). So much New Agism blurs from one to the next. *shrug*