Rail Guns, Gauss Cannons/Rifles, Mass Drivers

  • Rail gun in most games is a rocket launcher type thing, Guess guns are normaly mini-guns-chain guns, Rifles i would guess are long range firing weapon and mass drivers can mean different things like mass driver being a standered weapon for ships in wing commander or it could be a weapon that can destroy a planet. ------------------------------ We live in a sad world... the only way we can fix it... is for everyone to unite... and smash up there PS2´s... - Blitzkrieg

  • LOL. Ill take a crack at this. Rail guns shoot out charged uranium slugs (meaning pieces of uranium), at a near light speed. Gauss cannons are like rapid fire machine guns which uses bullets instead of energy. Mass drivers is a weapon which shoots out a bunch of bullets at once. Just imagine 100 guage shotgun. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> --------------------- If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I´d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

  • forgot about the quake version of the rail gun, i was thinking about the Jedi Knight version. Its a sort of projectile that exlodes on impacted or attaches it self to the target then explode <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> ------------------------------ We live in a sad world... the only way we can fix it... is for everyone to unite... and smash up there PS2´s... - Blitzkrieg

  • As I understand it, from my physics teacher in high school (NOTE: I failed Physics, twice), a railgun uses magnetic fields to propel a bullet along it´s &quot;rail&quot;. They were proven impractical for moder warfare because to accelerate the bullet to a speed where it is more effective than current weaponry creates enough heat to melt the barrel (rail). Even in a situation where they had cooled the rail, it was ineffective because of all the cooling needed. Oh, something I forgot: The longer the rail, the faster and farther the bullet fires. A Mass Driver, in theory, is the same as what is above, except that it is designed to work in zero gravity with objects much larger than a bullet. Though we don´t exactly do this, yet, it would likely be used for something like planetary bombardment. It´s far more efficient than the Rail Gun because in the zero gravity environment, there is very little, if any, friction, thus it can accellerate much faster, and space itself acts as a coolant. As for the Gauss, I haven´t a bloody clue. I´ll do some research and let you know. ----- Xornicon Altair WebMaster: <A href=´http://www.geekorgy.f2s.com´ Target=_Blank>GeekOrgy.com</a>

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  • I based my guesses on Quake 3 and Descent. Every game has its own version of everything. --------------------- If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I´d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

  • the quake version is more well know, ever seen the movie Eraser? They used Quake version rail guns (Cheap Asses). I bet ya the US Armed Forces really got some working railguns. Probaly all in space, probaly part of the StarWars Defense System <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> suck on that you commies <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> ------------------------------ We live in a sad world... the only way we can fix it... is for everyone to unite... and smash up there PS2´s... - Blitzkrieg

  • I bet you if one of these days we go up into Earth´s orbit, there´s probably a laser turrent on every Motorola, LandSat, and Surveyor satellites. &quot;Fight until you can fight no more&quot; 2+2 = 567,783,453,234,653,454,777.09 http://www.tekwarrior.com

    ---------------------------------------- No matter how big a problem seems, there would always be hope, as long as someone keeps trying.

  • Ive read somewhere that using an effective rail gun would require massive amounts of power. I guess you´ll have to hook it up to a nuclear power plant. --------------------- If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I´d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

  • THIS HAS TO BE THE SADDEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE!!! Im going to tell you the differences because i feel sad for you all. A railgun uses a metallic projectile thrown down two parelell (check spelling) rails by electromagnets perpendicular to the rails and only uses 3000 amps for a second a shot and the rails will only melt if its shot hella fast. But for sniping its beautiful. A gauss rifle uses hella less power but the way the projectile achieves terminal velocity is because their is a series of magnets in the rail PERFECTLY timed to accelerate it. But this system is unreliable because timing the barrels is the ****ing hardest thing in the world. And Ive still been trying to figure out what a mass launcher is. This is just to clear up any confusion. sneeze (dumasses)

  • (snezzes **get-a-life** and points to DarkSiege) Hmm, lets see If i remember correctly theres no defined defentions for any of the weapons in this post. ------------------------------ We live in a sad world... the only way we can fix it... is for everyone to unite... and smash up there PS2´s... - Blitzkrieg

  • Hmm...yes EB i´ve read that article about real working Railguns on Tumsun (if you kept track of C&amp;C:TS fansites). In the case of the Gauss and Mass Drivers... i guess there are just too many variations of each to get an accurate answer. Eg. Gauss Rifle in the Battletech series compared to the Gauss in Descent. Mass Drivers in Homeworld and WC series compared to those planetkilling installations in space

  • Well I can see that the Rail gun and the Mass driver are covered, the Gauss gun however is a different type. That is a high velocity gun that fires Armor busting shells that are dart like. It is based on the German WWII design Anti Tank Cannon that was wide at the start of the barrel and was made narrow in the end, the shell was fitted with soft metal bands that are pressed flat when the shell is going trough building up more pressure as it went along untill it left the barrel with a immense speed giving it the power it needed to smash trough armor with ease. DSA Squadron Commander <A href=´http://www.dsa-317th.com´ Target=_Blank>Dying Star Alliance</a>

  • From my days in Physics at school (too long ago now to think about). A Mass Driver uses a cyclotron {sp}. Charged particles are accelerated to beyond light speed where Einstein predicted that particles would gain mass to reduce the speed to light again. The resulting plasma mass is fired as a projectile. To increase the projectile size, each time the speed is reduced, it is accelerated again and the plasma mass keeps getting larger. The maximum size of the mass depends on the size of the cyclotron. Mass drivers are fine in theory but not proven in practice. They would also take a long time to recharge. Rail guns use the linear motor principle to propel a projectile. This projectile can take almost any form from solid steel to depleted Uranium. Depleted uranium has been pretty much accepted as a standard for most Sci Fi films etc. Don´t know about Gauss Guns but the name suggests something to do with magnetic forces. -- If I missile throw a Havoc at ya.

    -- My idea of an OS is one that operates the system, not a self contained package of every piece of software ever invented.

  • Actually, Einstien said that the more and more you come closer to the speed of light, the more mass you will have. Therefore, if you go beyond the speed of light, you will have infinite mass, which isnt good. --------------------- If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I´d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

  • Ok...



    Long ago and far away, a clever man discovered that if you take a coil of copper wire, shove a magnet in the middle, and spin the magnet, it makes electricity...


    Electric Dynamo


    Later it was discovered that if you take a coil of copper wire, shove a magnet in the middle, and turn on the electricity, the magnet spins...


    Electric Engine


    Later another man discovered that if you open out the outside of the engine flat, you can make the magnet move along the 'electromagnetic track'...


    Magnetic Linear Induction


    It was suggested that this last version could be used to make frictionless (at least with the 'rail' because it floats just above it on a magnetic field) and virtually noiseless light railway systems for inner cities...


    Mag-Lev


    It was then suggested that this thing could be used to launch chunks of metal mined from the asteroid belt or the surface of the moon, back to earth, using solar or fusion power, as a 'cheap' way of replacing chemical fueled cargo rockets...


    Mass Driver


    Then true to form, the human race said "hey we can turn this into a weapon", and set about trying...


    Rail Gun / Gause Gun / Mass Driver


    There is no friction between the projectile, and the barrel in a maglev weapon, as the projectile sits in the middle of a magnetic field and does not touch the sides. This suggests high velocity. If you dont believe in this, smash your hard drive open. Modern hard drives use 'frictionless bearings' made with 'rare earth magnets', higher rpm for less power.


    Freelancer already features a 'mass driver' like system, the common TradeLane. you enter the first 'hoop' and get shunted at high speed to the next 'hoop' and the next till you emerge at the other end, with the final 'hoop' reversing the process to turn your momentum back into energy, this is called 'magnetic braking', and a version f it is used on some modern subway cars, the engines are also dynamos, electricity is put in to accelerate the train out of one station, then as it aproaches the next station, the process is reversed, so the movment of the car turns the wheels, which spins the engine core slowing the car down and getting back quite a lot of the electrical energy put in during acceleration.


    Oh, and 'Gauss' is a scientific unit of measurement named after a dead physicist, specialising in electromagnetism...


    'Rail' comes from the original suggested application and first practical experiments moving a 'car' along a rail...


    None of these weapons uses 'bore reduction' or chemical propellants of any kind.


    :rolleyes:


    'Mass Driver' comes from scifi authors back in the 40's, 50's and 60's, taking about using this tech for moving large chunks of mass through space cheaply.

    AestheticDemon


    Terror Trooper #666


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