[GZG] Futuristic batteries

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 11:30 PM, 
<gzg-l-request@mail.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:

>  --- On Thu, 9/9/10, Roger Burton West <roger@firedrake.org> wrote:
>> Depends entirely on the tech. Most batteries aren't capable of
dumping
>> their entire energy capacity in a few seconds - there's no need for
it,
>
> Yep.  But have you seen some of the charge/discharge rates on
upcoming
> battery tech?  Scary.

Considering the number of electrical gizmos carried by infantry and
small vehicles in SG/DS, there is going to have to be several leaps
ahead in battery storage capacity.  And as for discharge rates, the
power cell for a Gauss rifle magazine has to dump it's power in a
series of discrete, short pulses lasting a relatively small period of
time (if you accelerate a dart to several thousand meters per second
muzzle velocity in 200cm. . . ), so that's one thing we know is a
prerequisite for the setting depicted.

>> Capacitor?
>
> I was thinking more of Larry Niven's molecular-distortion battery:
> "I saw the white flash of a molecular-distortion battery rupturing
among
> the explosions, a big one near full charge.  Not many near that would
> survive."

If it's that dangerous, they wouldn't be in common usage except for
applications where they had NO choice whatsoever.  No one is going to
want effective hand grenades in the flashlight his kids take camping.
And that would be something that WOULD have a centrally located
manufacturing process (presuming, of course, they are rechargeable)
because of the safety/security considerations.

John
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani
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