| From: | A cohort's CoHort <cohort@******.CONNECTED.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: railgun? (SMTP Id#: 26) - Reply |
| Date: | Sun, 10 Apr 1994 07:53:31 -0700 |
> Yes, they do recoil. It fires a projectile in one direction, so something
> has to go the opposite way (one of Newton's laws, can't remember which
> one).
True, but [current] railguns are massive enough (compared to the ammo) that
the recoil is neg., also you have to figure that in a chem-propelled
round, the explosion produced serves to push on both the round and the
gun itself, where a railgun actually uses mag. fields to pull the rounds
forward. Much less force is used.
Railguns use the length of the "rail" (improper term, really) to slowly
(comparatively) accelerate the round up to "muzzle velocity", where
chem-propelled rounds rely [mostly] on a single burst of energy.
Railguns' recoil is more even and controlled (the difference between a steady
push and a jerk of the same force), and so would incur a lesser penalty.
cohort@******.connected.com
-----=====-----
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