NationStates Jolt Archive

Ok. I was thinking of utilizing a particle accelerator into a gun-like mechanism. The weapon would be used in a turret or fill the entire cargo area of a plane, or maybe used in a tank. Now, so you know, this is future-space tech. I know this would be completely ignored in modern, like my anti-grav cruisers (Ah, I love those guys...). I was going to funnel the particles toward an area. Basically, it would work like the hotwheels starter loop things. The car gets moved around the loop, going faster and faster, until you flip up a piece of track, revealing the rest of the track, which the car shoots down. Except with particles. So the particles would shoot out and bombard anything it hits. Can we say split atoms? So, what do you guys think? Long-range, high-speed, nuclear bombardment.

I think...that this is in the wrong forum.

Indeed.

As this appears to be an OOC topic about a technology that might be invoked in roleplay, iMove :arrow: "NationStates".

--The Modified Democratic States of Cogitation

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Since we're talking about particles, here, they'd be high-speed, to be sure. Not lightspeed, but very fast nonetheless.

Since you're talking about surface aircraft and ground tanks, you'd probably have to worry about slight dissipation in the atmosphere, but magnitude of this effect will tend to be roleplay-specific.

Since you're spraying particles around, I wouldn't necessarily compare it to a nuclear blast. This might be the case if you're spraying anti-particles around, but then you have to worry about dissipation even more since the anti-particles would be interacting with the air molecules in the atmosphere.

All-in-all, this should be standard fare in science fiction/fantasy stories.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation
"Think about it for a moment."
Founder of The Realm of Ambrosia

It would really depend what kind of particles you were using. Remember that, for the most part, non explosive weapons (eg bullets and your particle weapon), rely on kinetic energy for the damage. It's like in boxing, if you punch slowly, not much energy or force. If you punch fast, more energy.

I really don't know what effect particles would have, but probably not causing a chemical/nuclear reaction. It'll probably just be exactly like bullets, except much faster and more penetrating power.

You're probably better off creating a typical electromagnetic railgun, though power to you if you get this particle cannon going!

That's a similar idea to a Railgun, which is still uber experimental IRL. That uses lots of electromagnets rapidly switching on and off to move a particle/small oeice of matieral down a rail at incredible speeds. Like 20 Miles per Second. That fast.

Primarily designed for space-based Anti-ICBM usage, it would take a big technological leap from this moment. The main problem is replacing the rails, which heat up and get ruined, so basically you need a new barrel after each shot.


But for particle accelerators, maybe you could wrap a tube round a tank turret and fire it from that, although Particle Accelerators are usually building-sized (a great big ring around/within a building), but scaling it down could still provide a decent weapon capability. But that's waaay into quantum theory and associated topics.

Go for the Railgun! :D