Centrifugal weapon could deliver stealth firepower

New Scientist ^ | 5/11/05 | Will Knight

[mnehring]

..and thus why I have a business degree and not a physics degree.. thanks for the clarification.

[theDentist]

"Snap your fingers, turn on a light. That was my idea..."

[Doomonyou]

Looks like a Titleist!

[TalonDJ]

The acceleration is very nearly circular and entirely internal the 'firing' is just releasing a mass. The 'recoil' would be simple conservation of momentum. That deals with velocity and not acceleration. The recoil would be very sharp since it is nearly a instantaneous release but it would also be very small.

[mnehring]

Round bullets have an accuracy problem. But ball bearings with dimples on them could be more accurate at long distances. Witness the evolution of the golf ball.

This reminds me of a bunch of Revolutionary War rifle shot my grandpa had.. they started adding in large dimples (4-5) like large versions of what is on a golf ball. He said it was for accuracy.

[LibWhacker]

A Jai alai "high lie" ball travels faster than the scoop used to throw it.

Are you sure about that? Seems to violate the laws of physics as they were taught to me, though admittedly we never looked at the physics of Jai alai! Thanks very much for that, though, BC . . . It'll be interesting to see what others say about it.

[mnehring]

We could reduce the diameter to six inches and still get you a muzzle velocity of 1,000 ft/sec if you were willing to carry around a rotating steel or titanium disk that was spinning at 40,000 rpm. You'd have to carry around a motor, too. :-)

Why are we assuming this is a motor driven or as others suggested a flywheel? Couldn't this be done through a controlled magnetic field, thus no need for moving parts?

[R. Scott]

I'd bet I'd be the only mom on my block to have a DREAD!

Would a “safety” lock be a dread lock?

[Southack]

"We could reduce the diameter to six inches and still get you a muzzle velocity of 1,000 ft/sec if you were willing to carry around a rotating steel or titanium disk that was spinning at 40,000 rpm. You'd have to carry around a motor, too. :-)"

Every home handyman with a $20 Dremmel has a centrifugal weapon capable of 40,000 rpm's and muzzle velocities of 1000 feet per second.

They'd just need small, dense projectiles and the right tube plumbing.

There was a whole series of sci-fi books a couple of decades ago about using steam engines to power wheels that would release projectiles...giving machine guns to 18th century armies.

[LibWhacker]

Lol, a screwdriver would definitely fit in your purse, but a nice little .40 caliber or .45 caliber pistol would be better!

[TalonDJ]

It does some counter intuitive at first but the math is sound. The reason is the radial acceleration component. I can't rattle off the number off the top of my head. At home I have a copy of the proceedings of the space conference I first saw this at and in there are the complete mathematics behind this.

[calex59]

Except now you have to deal with Newton's Third Law: as the weapon spun in one direction, there would be a tendency for the platform to begin spinning in the opposite direction -- not rapidly, but enough to make Zero-G combat a rather hairy proposition.

You simply make a second wheel that spins in the opposite direction, similar to some vertical take off propellar planes that were around in the 1960s or some two prop helicopters. This would keep the space station from spinning.

[JoeFromSidney]

I can recall reading at least two science fiction stories involving such a device. Can't recall titles now, but maybe the existence of the stories would invalidate his patent.

[LibWhacker]

You mean like a railgun? It's true; railguns have awesome potential. Especially a nice little portable model I could slip in my pocket. But I think this particular invention involves centripetal forces; i.e., a spinning disk of some kind.

[commonasdirt]

Would hate to see any meaty target after THAT does the job

[TalonDJ]

The recoil would be absorbed as a wobble in the rotation. It is a transference of linear motion into rotational motion. So the energy does exist and does go some place it does not do it in a more traditional firearm 'recoil'.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Probably the Fetzer valve.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I suppose these could be scored like a golf ball. Of course, the Magus effect still affects accuracy.