EnigmaHood (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

I already knew that, trust me, I know a lot more about physics than you do. I wasn't more precise because it just wasn't very relevant to what we were talking about. If you want to be technical and pedantic, then you could say the laser hits at the speed of light in an atmosphere, which is different than the speed of light in a vacuum, but it's not really helpful in context to what we are talking about.

Geoxile (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

Technically no, light only travels at the speed of light in a vacuum like space. In an environment with high concentration of obstruction, such as the atmosphere, light moves considerably slower but technically it is still very very fast.

EnigmaHood (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

Actually, in theory an e-mag cannon like a railgun can have a higher rate of fire, since there's no casing to worry about. Just a solid metal projectile which your shoot out the front.

EnigmaHood (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

If you can build one powerful enough, sure. But I think it would make more sense to make one on the moon, so it doesn't have to fight as much gravity, and there's no atmosphere in the way.

EnigmaHood (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

You could use a railgun to shoot aircraft, but lasers would be better. Airplanes don't have much armor anyway, and the laser hits at the speed of light, so it's naturally a better option. Railguns are good at killing stuff on the ground.

Skurgefaust (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

Depleted uranium rounds? Makes sense, would go through anything.

makyme (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

Completley daft idea now..but....Asteroid defence ??... this thing looks perfect for knocking the crap out of something heading for us....Recoil wouldnt be a problem as it would be ground based ( bigger scale then ? ) Hey dont knock it... we arent told everything yah know !!...Have none of yah ever watched the Movies ??

gamebushido (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

I would like to reinforce irontygre, and add that the railgun is electro-magnetic, not by itself magnetic. You're thinking of a Gauss, or coilgun.The Railgun can easily fling a slug 20km per second, which is pretty freakin fast. Its not too difficult to calculate trajectory at that speed.Main problems are the heat generated from the reaction, and the forces working against the components of the gun. It requires a large ammount of maintnence to keep the gun working right now.

DoctorFist (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

Yeah, I imagine it would. Anyways, I think I realize that the only effective STAR WARS defense system could work with lasers. Although I also like Tesla's death ray idea..

kinga303 (January 1, 1970 at 12:59 am)

what if they put the railgun on the satellite?hehehe i just think it would be funny as the satellite would fire it, and knock itself out of orbit with the sheer recoil that i'd imagine a railgun of that size would haveand it would look like a shooting star as the slug would disintegrates on re-entry right?