13
votes
Accepted
Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers
A laser will laugh at a thermal superconductor trying to stop it.
A thermal superconductor is very good at dissipating heat building up in a confined location, but a laser doesn't necessarily heat up ...
- 276k
11
votes
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
Summary similar to the other answers
Thanks for the clarifications and improvements. I've retracted my close vote.
Basic math: A cylinder 50 feet long with a radius of 1.75 feet has a volume of 481 ...
- 117k
11
votes
Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers
I've mentioned this subject briefly on various different occasions in one of my many, many laser cheerleading posts on this site passim ad nauseam. I'll gloss over the issue of high-temperature ...
- 72.4k
10
votes
How much clothing could one cut through with a chainsaw before it stalled, the chain broke, or some other disastrous thing happened?
Frame Challenge
There are plenty of horrendous accidents involving chainsaws where ordinary clothing had virtually nothing in the way of protective properties.
Now, there are chainsaw chaps which have ...
- 18.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Moving Arrows to Supersonic Speeds
Mach 1.5 at STP is roughly 500 m/s. That's not particularly exciting... consider that a Barrett M82 has a muzzle velocity of nearly 900 m/s, and a General Dynamics KEW-A1 (a real-world APFSDS antitank ...
- 72.4k
10
votes
Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers
A "thermal superconductor" is not just a material with infinite thermal conductivity, they're not a direct analogue to electrical superconductors, as thermal conductivity isn't a direct ...
- 4,766
8
votes
Accepted
Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers...in atmosphere
TL;DR: in an atmosphere, thermal superconductors might actually be less useful than in space.
In an atmosphere, your laser power is limited by atmospheric breakdown... the point at which the beam is ...
- 72.4k
6
votes
Thermal Superconductors vs Pulse Lasers...in atmosphere
There is no different answer than those you got already.
Any weapon designer worth their title would account for atmospheric induced distortion and disturbance on the beam path, to ensure the target ...
- 276k
6
votes
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
Poorly
The likely "full metal" for the mid-1400s would be cast iron. A bolt a metre in diameter and 15 metres long comprised of cast iron would mass about 90 tonnes.
Medieval ballistae used ...
- 30.2k
5
votes
How much clothing could one cut through with a chainsaw before it stalled, the chain broke, or some other disastrous thing happened?
The first piece of clothing he tried to cut would probably entangle his chainsaw and jam it. You'll still make a mess of a guy in a t-shirt, but you'll need to unjam it for the next.
If you just chop ...
- 23.8k
5
votes
Designs for copper-gold-silver armor
There was in fact a period in some parts of the world referred to as the chalcolithic, or copper age. That would seems to be a good start for your future research. It spanned quite a considerable ...
- 72.4k
5
votes
How much clothing could one cut through with a chainsaw before it stalled, the chain broke, or some other disastrous thing happened?
Cutting with a chain saw is about moving X number of blades past a target faster than the target can naturally bend. The blade action cuts through the target. The blades on a chain saw are bent in a ...
- 5,052
5
votes
Is it possible to use rail guns or mass drivers as some kind of anti orbital weapon?
Sure
I mean - we already have anti-satellite technology, we have the ability to intercept orbiting vessels.
However - for a real-world example:
The Thunder Well
This is one of those batty 1960s 'Let's ...
- 18.6k
4
votes
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
You do realise that a 100 metric tonne bolt is the weight of about a Boeing 757. Having a ballista launch something like that is not really feasible, not even with today's technology.
I would suggest ...
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4
votes
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
It wouldn't, no one in their right mind would design and build such a machine. The cost and labour would be prohibitive and ...
- 23.8k
4
votes
Is it possible to use rail guns or mass drivers as some kind of anti orbital weapon?
See also Project HARP. This used long-barrelled guns of up to 16 inches diameter to shoot a projectile into near space. The highest it got was 180 Kms with an 84 Kg projectile. Whatever it shot had to ...
- 7,068
4
votes
How much clothing could one cut through with a chainsaw before it stalled, the chain broke, or some other disastrous thing happened?
For this answer I will assume a standard chainsaw, i.e. not one used in the logging industry, although the answer could still be valid in case of the latter.
I can imagine the maximum lies roughly ...
- 4,058
3
votes
Designs for copper-gold-silver armor
Armour is tailored to protect against the weapons used. In this case the metals are unsuitable for weapons so weapons would be wood, stone and bone based, like the one in the picture. Many cultures ...
- 23.8k
3
votes
Is it possible to use rail guns or mass drivers as some kind of anti orbital weapon?
"Yes, but."
Richard Kirk's answer basically tells you what you need to know... humans were able to shoot a projectile above the Kármán line back in the 60s, and technology has marched on a ...
- 72.4k
2
votes
How would a scaled-up ballista designed to launch 50-foot spears function?
(...) scaled-up ballistas designed to launch 50-foot full-metal spears across a distance of ~250 yards (...) The question is, with technology equivalent to that of Europe in the Middle Ages, how would ...
- 136k
2
votes
Is it possible to use rail guns or mass drivers as some kind of anti orbital weapon?
The problem is the atmosphere. Its what creates friction and resistance and is as much a hold back as gravity. So lets imagine for a moment a rail gun, slightly slopped that leaves the harshest part ...
- 1,428
1
vote
Is it possible to use rail guns or mass drivers as some kind of anti orbital weapon?
Its an excellent question and I don’t know why people are falling on it as a pack of wolves. In fact the edit isn’t necessary either.
Some people have mentioned the high velocities. Well we have ...
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