NationStates Jolt Archive

After my last OOC discussion thread on a FT weapon idea it was mentioned that plamsa weaponry would be impractical because in order to fire it the barrel must be made out of certain material resilient to it but then again it could be used on all ships as armor making them all resistant.

Not so, since the plasma would be like firing out a nuclear explosion and those would atomise most material it would be impossible to find a material resistant to it in enough amounts to make a large lazer gun with. Thus I think the lazers in games like starcraft go like this. The ship fires out a solid bullet, a small part of the bullet once a safe distance away from the firer activates some sort of spark or something that starts a chain reaction turning the bullet from solid to plasma. If you look closely at the lazers firing in starcraft you notice there is a fire coming out of the barrel which appears only in weapons shooting out solid bullets then instead of seeing the lazer bit come out you only see the lazer appear a centimeter (from our perspective in the game) away from the firer. Thus it'll have devastating effects on targets.

Unfortunately, while the heat of plasma would incur severe damage, this would unfortunately compensated for in the lack of density. You see, plasma is, in essence, a superheated gas. And, unfortunately, to penetrate modern armor, you really need density.

There is a really good article on this:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/PlasmaWeapons.html

But the bullet which is solid would become plasma forming a stream of plasma shooting through space, it'll still have momentum and some density (plasma can have density or black holes wouldn't be able to form) besides it's heat and energy would be enough to boil the armor once near it. What mroe for when impact occurs?

Again: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/PlasmaWeapons.html

It can't be done.

If you go FT, South Liz, you can perfectly say so.

I mean, after some of the stuff that has been pulled up in FT (Um, creating black holes on command that supposedly suck up whole battle fleets? Um, what?), than certainly. After all, Halo does it-as do plenty of people on these boards.

Now, for MT, the rest of these guys are right.

But the bullet which is solid would become plasma forming a stream of plasma shooting through space, it'll still have momentum and some density (plasma can have density or black holes wouldn't be able to form) besides it's heat and energy would be enough to boil the armor once near it. What mroe for when impact occurs?

The key word is some density. Air has some density, but the makers of the Merkava don't seem to worried about windstorms.

As for the heat, its not impossible (especialy if this is for future tech) to invent a form of heat dispersion. The beauty of a modern day armor penetrating weapon, such as the shaped charge, is that you have both heat and a dense metal working together.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munroe_effect

ooooooooooo what you saaaaaaaaayyyyy Because its all for the not, because it is! OOOOOOOOOOOO what you say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

ooooooooooo what you saaaaaaaaayyyyy Because its all for the not, because it is! OOOOOOOOOOOO what you say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

KAL VAS FLAM!

If you go FT, South Liz, you can perfectly say so.

I mean, after some of the stuff that has been pulled up in FT (Um, creating black holes on command that supposedly suck up whole battle fleets? Um, what?), than certainly. After all, Halo does it-as do plenty of people on these boards.

Now, for MT, the rest of these guys are right.

it is possible to make black holes thoeretially via cold fusion I beleive. It is also possible to evaporate it with special waves I hear.

KAL VAS FLAM!

KAl FLAM VAS!!!!!

If you look closely at the lazers firing in starcraft you notice there is a fire coming out of the barrel which appears only in weapons shooting out solid bullets then instead of seeing the lazer bit come out you only see the lazer appear a centimeter (from our perspective in the game) away from the firer. Thus it'll have devastating effects on targets.
...Or it could be a standard chemical laser, or a solid state laser, or a bomb-pumped maser or some such, with the path explained away by, say, a spotting rifle firing tracers.

And trust me, you don't even want to get started on all the problems a plasma weapon would have. The absolute least is surviving the stuff, as without heating it, it's quite tame stuff. Just a step above a gas, really, which is where the problems stem from. You're shooting very hot gas at people, so you're going to have about the same effect as pointing the exhaust from your dryer at them. Gas expands to fill all available space, and the hotter it is, the faster it does this (excited atoms and all that jazz). You can attenuate this by firing it at faster speeds, but when you're firing it fast enough to get decent range, you might as well be using a particle beam weapon.

So trust me, just stick with a nice simple laser, maser, graser, or whatever. Heck, go with a particle beam weapon and you'll still a KEW.

it is possible to make black holes thoeretially via cold fusion I beleive. It is also possible to evaporate it with special waves I hear.
Not quite theory anymore. They made 'em already with a particle accelerator by colliding dense particles at high enough speeds to make a black hole. Of course, as they're rather far below the minimum mass to sustain a singularity, they quickly explode.

As for cold fusion, it's bollocks, and should really be discounted. I mean really, limitless energy from a glass of water and a couple of electrodes?

Ok, most people, when they think of plasma, they think of some cool looking glowing thing from starwars or startrek that can pack some serious woop-ass. Well, the fact of the matter (pardon the pun) is, plasma is actualy a state of matter, somewhere between liquid and gas, I think, I could be mistaken. To get plasma, you need somethin that is friggin hot, and I mean HOT! Lets take a plasma grenade for example. Most people think: "Ooooh, exploding plasma will desinigrate everything within the area." When infact, plasma is actualy the bi-product of the reaction taking place. Like with lazers. I heard something to the fact that on the science channel, those dudes that work with lasers said that plasma is a bi-product, and can be contained, to an extent. Lasers, well, they are high consentrations of light. All of the fancy big-worded stuffs, ARE ALL BYPRODUCTS.

KAl FLAM VAS!!!!!

Someone apparently hasn't played Ultima Online :P

Anyways, plasma is for the most part inefficient as a weapon. I'll leave it at that.

For atmospheric weapons, there is something called an electrolaser which shoots electricity down a laser beam. Currently this can be used only at short distances to make a taser like weapon without the taser, but in the future you might be able to make a weapon which could fire different charges of electricity. Set your electrolaser on stun, or kill would be remotely possible.

actually it would be far more efficient to use an electromagnetic field to contain and propel the plasma inside the barrel, essentially using the same technique a railgun/coilgun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun) uses to propel the plasma, at the same time the electromagnetic field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field)can be used to concentrate it keeping it seperated from the barrel of the gun. You might even be able to use a plasma wake effect (http://www.universetoday.com/2005/12/22/podcast-plasma-thruster-prototype/)to accelerate the plasma at ungodly speeds with relativly little power.

As for the issue of it expanding relativly fast, thats gonna happen but if you could focus the magnetic field after 'firing' the stuff into a tight tunnel it would travel along the field lines. the only problem is the amount of power required to run such a weapon would be... well... can you carry a nuclear reactor in a backpack?

Also the beauty of a EM field to propel the plasma you can also concentrate it as tight as possible to heat it up to rather insane tempretures, kind of like a barreled version of a hot tomamak reactor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak)(the experimental fusion reactors that are being worked on atm)

also the best ammunition for this weapon would probably be lead pellets, with it's relativly low melting point and high density, not to mention it's cheap :)

Halo does plasma rather differently, plasma is the name of a substance in halo, not a state of matter, although it is a gas. They heat the gas when they shoot it out but not to the level of heat in plasma. If you could contain the amount of energy to create plasma for one "bullet" or "shot" in a pistol, let alone multiple, then you could create a fricking planet destroyer which is only the size of a van or a bus, so it could be mounted on a small spaceship. So I really doubt the mean plasma in that way when the refer to plasma weapons in other things too.

This was typed quick and unstudied so it has the grammatical and possibly scientific value of a hair on a gorilla's annus.

The major difference is that electrolasers are very close to becoming a real battlefield weapon. XADS and Ionatron are already producing the prototype weapons for the battlefield. Basically it is used for three things, a stun gun without the tasers, a device to disable vehicles, and a way to explode IEDs at a distance.

*Snip*

Not quite theory anymore. They made 'em already with a particle accelerator by colliding dense particles at high enough speeds to make a black hole. Of course, as they're rather far below the minimum mass to sustain a singularity, they quickly explode.

As for cold fusion, it's bollocks, and should really be discounted. I mean really, limitless energy from a glass of water and a couple of electrodes?

Well, there's another one. Maybe not as much in the experienced RPers, but Cold Fusion exists in this FT-verse, at least.

After my last OOC discussion thread on a FT weapon idea it was mentioned that plamsa weaponry would be impractical because in order to fire it the barrel must be made out of certain material resilient to it but then again it could be used on all ships as armor making them all resistant.

Not so, since the plasma would be like firing out a nuclear explosion and those would atomise most material it would be impossible to find a material resistant to it in enough amounts to make a large lazer gun with. Thus I think the lazers in games like starcraft go like this. The ship fires out a solid bullet, a small part of the bullet once a safe distance away from the firer activates some sort of spark or something that starts a chain reaction turning the bullet from solid to plasma. If you look closely at the lazers firing in starcraft you notice there is a fire coming out of the barrel which appears only in weapons shooting out solid bullets then instead of seeing the lazer bit come out you only see the lazer appear a centimeter (from our perspective in the game) away from the firer. Thus it'll have devastating effects on targets.


You spell laser with an 's', it's an acronym for light "amplification by stimulated emission of radiation."

Plasma weapons are a bad idea... plasma fired/propelled on the other hand are not. That is where you use plasma to propel a solid state projectile at extreme velocities.

Plasma is much more like a flamethrower in application, it would spit jets of the substance out. Trying to pack it in a magnetic field and flinging it would not work out very well. Now using several lasers around a tin foil wrapped piece of deuterium will create a plasma, you could make a bomb for it, or you could just use a hydrogen bomb.

FT wise, a Electromagnetic field can contain it along the barrel. However this is also why strong electromagnetic shield will stop plasma.

There is nothing stopping a person from creating a battlefield plasma flamethrower, you could even make it nicely radioactive to cook IFVs and men. It would be a suicidal weapon because unless the person was very well protected and it didn't explode, the carrier of the weapon could be toast.

In halo they already thought of how a plasma wepon would be fired. The plasma would be magnatised, then uesing magnatisem propell the ball of gas. The hole time the magnets keep the plasma from touching the gun.

=U

Plasma is much more like a flamethrower in application, it would spit jets of the substance out. Trying to pack it in a magnetic field and flinging it would not work out very well. Now using several lasers around a tin foil wrapped piece of deuterium will create a plasma, you could make a bomb for it, or you could just use a hydrogen bomb.

FT wise, a Electromagnetic field can contain it along the barrel. However this is also why strong electromagnetic shield will stop plasma.
A bit less efficient than a flamethrower, actually. A plasma, being a highly charged gas, will spread out far, FAR quicker than the liquid fuels that your average flamethrower used, most likely toasting the user rather quickly.

In halo they already thought of how a plasma wepon would be fired. The plasma would be magnatised, then uesing magnatisem propell the ball of gas. The hole time the magnets keep the plasma from touching the gun.
Wouldn't really work. Unless you have a handwavium magnetic field projector (and in that case, why aren't you using THAT as the weapon instead?), magnetising the plasma will cause the individual particles to repel each other, spreading it faster. Anyway, touching the gun isn't that bad. Heck, you could heat the stuff AFTER it leaves the barrel if you really wanted to: There's no requirement for plasma to be ungodly hot.