Re: [FT] Railgun Goals

On Wed, 25 Nov 1998, Jeff Lyon wrote:
> I've heard KV railguns described as accelerating projectiles to "near
> relativistic" velocities,

i doubt this. relativistic is, like 25 % lightspeed minimum. to
accelerate
a kilogram of matter to 0.25 c, not accounting for mass increase at high
v, takes about 3e15 joules -three thousand terajoules. this is a bit
much
for a tactical weapon, i would say. how much energy is there in a
megatonne nuke?

Tom