Bill Pragnell nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2007/10/25 06:28:
> Darren New wrote:
>> 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. :-)
> 
> A railgun is exactly that - a thrower. A firearm uses chemical reactions 
> to provide impulse.
> 
> You would never use one as a portable antipersonnel weapon anyway, it's 
> probably more useful as a large scale space-based anti-ship or 
> planet-busting weapon.
Or as a satelite thrower.
Dig a large tunnel up some mountain near the equator, from about sea level to 
near the summit, line it up with proper circuitry. Load a specialy designed 
single stage rocket. Launch a 1000 tons payload into stationary orbit for less 
than $1 000 000.00! And you could do that every few hours.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
You know you've been raytracing too long when you're starting to find these 
quotes more unsettling than funny.
     -- Alex McLeod a.k.a. Giant Robot Messiah

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