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Old 01-28-2018, 04:46 PM   #21
starslayer
 
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Default Re: Plasma Guns

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Originally Posted by Minuteman37 View Post
The Plasma is "bottled" at a fusion reactor so to speak, and the energy loss while "bottled" is marginal. In terms of energy storage it may leak faster then a normal battery, but the shelf life is manageable for a smallarm.

The "bottled" plasma is then thrown by whatever means at the target, cracks and vents it's contents.


That's pretty much how I envision this thing working.
In this scenario plasma has no special properties- its just an EM slug thrower with exotic ammunition; ironically the expansion of the plasma when cracked would actually make it worse than just using the same suspension technology to fire blobs of liquid carbon, it would require radically less compression, and would actually stick to the target rather than energetically moving away from it.

Edit: Since you have the technology to magnetically suspend matter at immense pressure and give it virtually no thermal loss firing bolts of liquid hydrogen may be preferable. The near instantaneous flash freezing coupled with liquid hydrogen's propensity to flow through barriers via quantum effects means that it will heavily rive armour even if delivered in relatively small packages (more is obviously better)

Last edited by starslayer; 01-28-2018 at 04:58 PM.
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Old 01-28-2018, 05:01 PM   #22
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Default Re: Plasma Guns

Interesting... I quite like the possibilities.
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Old 01-28-2018, 05:07 PM   #23
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So there's another kind of plasma gun where you have a small, dedicated wormhole orbiting the plasma in a star and the other end of the wormhole connects to your gun and it opens when you pull the trigger. You just sort of hose plasma around like a ridiculously dangerous high-tech version of a flame-thrower. The wielder should probably have some form of protective gear on though.
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Old 01-28-2018, 06:03 PM   #24
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Default Re: Plasma Guns

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In this scenario plasma has no special properties- its just an EM slug thrower with exotic ammunition; ironically the expansion of the plasma when cracked would actually make it worse
Well, it's an energetic explosion.
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Old 01-28-2018, 07:43 PM   #25
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A thought occurs to me: since the hypothetical plasma ball needs some kind of superscience containment anyway, and keeping it hot means the containment reflects the radiated energy back into the plasma, that suggests an interesting visual image.

The 'shots' of such a weapon, whether at hand scale or cannon level or on up, might not look like the blazing fireballs of SF, but rather like perfectly spherical mirrors, since the containment effect might also be reflective from the outside.

Imagine the weapon fires and a stream of tiny spheres emerges at tremendous velocity, flashing in the sunlight like tiny beads of perfectly spherical glass...of course, in the dark, they'd be invisible. No light show at all.
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Old 01-28-2018, 08:52 PM   #26
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So What's the most damage that could be done by a 20mm ball of plasma and how does that compare with the scorching hot carbon or the liquid hydrogen?
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Old 01-28-2018, 09:06 PM   #27
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So What's the most damage that could be done by a 20mm ball of plasma and how does that compare with the scorching hot carbon or the liquid hydrogen?
Nearly arbitrary until you put some kind of constraints on the confinement or filling beyond 'plasma'. Because we can add an awful lot of mass and heat to that ball before it stops being plasma.
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Old 01-28-2018, 10:34 PM   #28
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So What's the most damage that could be done by a 20mm ball of plasma and how does that compare with the scorching hot carbon or the liquid hydrogen?
At how much pressure?

At atmospheric pressure, about 0, one if we are being generous (of course the ball of plasma will also be almost weightless).
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Old 01-28-2018, 10:37 PM   #29
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So What's the most damage that could be done by a 20mm ball of plasma?
Well, a 20mm ball of quark-gluon plasma would have a mass of around 2x10^13 kg and would likely release on the order of 10^30J on decaying back to normal matter, which would blow the Earth apart, though it's not quite sufficient for complete gravitational disruption so it would probably reform.

On the other hand, a 20mm ball of plasma at one atmosphere of pressure will have an energy content of 10-20J and might blister unprotected skin, but not much more. So really, it depends on what 'plasma' means.
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Old 01-28-2018, 11:19 PM   #30
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Default Re: Plasma Guns

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Well, a 20mm ball of quark-gluon plasma would have a mass of around 2x10^13 kg and would likely release on the order of 10^30J on decaying back to normal matter, which would blow the Earth apart, though it's not quite sufficient for complete gravitational disruption so it would probably reform.

On the other hand, a 20mm ball of plasma at one atmosphere of pressure will have an energy content of 10-20J and might blister unprotected skin, but not much more. So really, it depends on what 'plasma' means.
well the weight of the plasma is obviously a limiting factor for small arms what could be done with a WPS of 0.037?
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