Re: Gauss guns & recoil (was RE: Low Tech Scenarios)

At 13:05 5/23/98, Samuel Penn wrote:
>> Except that if you want the high velocities for penetration and KE
>> and you want the high cyclic for volume of fire, then you're looking
>> at actually producing a *greater* sum of forces to accelerate the
>> rounds in a given time increment in a mag-gun than in a chem-gun.
>> Which translates to more total recoil.
>
>I know little about guns, but a bit about maths. Presumably
>the recoil comes from the momentum of the round? If you can
>have higher velocities but lower mass rounds in a guass rifle
>(which always seems to be the idea of them in SF), then the
>momentum can be lower (mv) but the kinetic energy (0.5mvv)
>can still be equivalent or higher.

Also, would the velocities be *that* much higher for small arms? All one
would bee looking for is enough KE to defeat personal (and perhaps)
powered
armor.... not the hypervelocities being tested in current designs for
tank
main guns.

Offhand, it seems to me the advantage of gauss small arms would be the
reduced ammunition weight, assuming of course, the the weapon itself can
be
made light enough.

Those who are interested in continuing this, please reply to email....
I'm
enjoying it, but we've probably tried the patience of the list enough.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Jim 'Jiji' Foster / jfoster@kansas.net / Jiji @ AnimeMUCK / TIP #28 /
PPIG #42

"That's the way we all begin," said Tom Platt. "The boys they make
believe
all the time till they've cheated 'emselves into bein' men, an' so till
they die--pretendin' and pretendin'."
    Rudyard Kipling, _Captains Courageous_