> Well, in an atmosphere, it would be like being hit by an explosion, as you 
> pile up all the air in front of it.

Wouldn't something going that fast vaporize immediately when it hit the air 
going that fast?  Doesn't stuff that going only a fraction of that speed 
burn up in the outer atmosphere?

> Plus, don't forget all that nice gamma-burst radiation. (The railguns in 
> the story actually had to fire for a few thousand rounds to punch a hole 
> in the atmosphere so the needles wouldn't just vaporize.)

Ah yes, ok :-)

>> Well... technically a railgun (not to be confused with a coilgun) fires 
>> projectiles using electrical propolsion. There's nothing in the 
>> definition about how fast. ;-)
>
> True. But to get the electrical propultion to work, the projectile needs 
> to be pretty small, which means it needs to go pretty fast. Otherwise it's 
> more of a thrower than a firearm. :-)

In one of our lectures at university the dude had this rail-gun.  It was 
about 2 metres long and plugged into the 420V 3-phase power supply.  He 
loaded it with a brass (I think) solid lump of metal that was in a pointy 
bullet shape.  It wasn't small, about 10cm diameter and 30cm long.  When he 
flicked the switch it punched through (and got stuck in) a big bit of wood 
just off the end of the bench he was using.  Rig up 10 or 20 metres of that 
baby and it would be interesting :-)

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