Maybe we'll have real directed energy weapons by then.
Depends on your definition of 'real', if frying a drone's comms with radio waves qualified they're already in use.
Portable (50 lbs or less) laser, plasma, anti-matter =)
The issue with portable energy weapons is the energy density required of the battery. For a weapon compact enough to be carried by a human, I believe you'd need a battery that's got the energy output of a Davy Crockett.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I honestly did not expect this thread to be necro'd now five times.....
A byproduct of introducing anti-matter to matter is temporal disruptions and the proverbial "time rift," rendering time a flat circle and forcing us to experience this thread as an eternal recurrence.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Maybe we'll have real directed energy weapons by then.
Depends on your definition of 'real', if frying a drone's comms with radio waves qualified they're already in use.
Portable (50 lbs or less) laser, plasma, anti-matter =)
The issue with portable energy weapons is the energy density required of the battery. For a weapon compact enough to be carried by a human, I believe you'd need a battery that's got the energy output of a Davy Crockett.
There is a novel series in which the energy weapons are powerful but the battery only has enough charge for one shot. Basically a laser SMAW.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
The issue with portable energy weapons is the energy density required of the battery.
Not really. You could have a killing laser with a beam energy that's within the reasonable limits of a laptop battery. However, it would require a rather exotic beam profile that we cannot achieve with remotely reasonable mass or efficiency.
The issue with portable energy weapons is the energy density required of the battery.
Not really. You could have a killing laser with a beam energy that's within the reasonable limits of a laptop battery. However, it would require a rather exotic beam profile that we cannot achieve with remotely reasonable mass or efficiency.
AKA it's not actually possible to do it with a laptop battery.
Also, you may have seen some of the many videos of just how explosive a damaged laptop battery can be?
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The reason the thread keeps getting necroed is that antimatter is just normal matter going backward in time (see Feynman diagrams) - the thread keeps meeting its antimatter twin killing both and the super energetic quantum field created rebirth’s both the normal and antimatter threads to continue the time loop the initial poster created with the first post.
matter antimatter reactions today involve individual particles not chunks of matter but they do regularly create antimatter at facilities like CERN, SLAC and Brookhaven. The energy needed to create even these tiny amounts is mind boggling. But it’s sort of feasible to create anti atoms (anti hydrogen). Also keep in mind that the Star Trek warp engines used matter - antimatter reactions to provide the required energy to warp space-time creating the warp drives.
and yes I have worked as a fast food cook and cashier.
So ... this is one of the multi-quote-doesn't-work-days. Anyways:
I'm one of the railgun people. A railgun is one form of mag rifle. Although the differences between mass driver, railgun, coilgun and mag rifle escape me. I think it's just people trying to sound clever.
Also, I worked for 14 days at McDonalds before getting fired. I think that may be a record of some sort. Frankly, if I hadn't been fired from McD, I would have thought they didn't do that.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
You could have a killing laser with a beam energy that's within the reasonable limits of a laptop battery.
No? I mean, I'm no kind of expert, but the energy output of a laptop battery is substantially too slow to achieve anything weaponizable. If you could output the full charge of a laptop battery near-instantly, maybe. But you can't. If you had capacitors with the same total charge .. maybe. But then, next step, you need to punch that charge through copper - or gold - wires without burning them out. That's another challenge. Again, no expert, but I really think you'd much prefer to have superconductors for that job. But now you need cooling too, and a power source for that, and ... nah, I think man portable lasguns that can actually do anything dangerous requires more than just 'hook it up to my laptop battery'.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
No? I mean, I'm no kind of expert, but the energy output of a laptop battery is substantially too slow to achieve anything weaponizable. If you could output the full charge of a laptop battery near-instantly, maybe. But you can't. If you had capacitors with the same total charge .. maybe. But then, next step, you need to punch that charge through copper - or gold - wires without burning them out. That's another challenge. Again, no expert, but I really think you'd much prefer to have superconductors for that job. But now you need cooling too, and a power source for that, and ... nah, I think man portable lasguns that can actually do anything dangerous requires more than just 'hook it up to my laptop battery'.
It takes on the order of a kilojoule of beam energy to kill, which a reasonable laptop battery can manage in 10s. You'd need a capacitor because you need that energy delivered in less than 10s, but the primary source could be a battery. However... with current or near future tech a laser that can output that sort of beam will be big and heavy and have an efficiency of less than 1%.
It takes on the order of a kilojoule of beam energy to kill, which a reasonable laptop battery can manage in 10s. You'd need a capacitor because you need that energy delivered in less than 10s, but the primary source could be a battery. However... with current or near future tech a laser that can output that sort of beam will be big and heavy and have an efficiency of less than 1%.
I think I quoted you, although I was really quoting 6thLyran? Anyways, yes. I suppose a laptop battery could charge the capacitor, but you'd still need your ~1kjoule delivered in maybe a millisecond, bringing us back to (maybe, I dunno) superconductors. Particularly if you need 100kj to achieve a 1kj output. If I'm understanding you right =)
Whereas magrifles do ... sorta credible things already.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Whereas magrifles do ... sorta credible things already.
You can get a magnetic rifle that... has worse performance than a conventional rifle. The only man portable energy weapon that's actually worth carrying around at current tech is a taser.
You could have a killing laser with a beam energy that's within the reasonable limits of a laptop battery.
No? I mean, I'm no kind of expert, but the energy output of a laptop battery is substantially too slow to achieve anything weaponizable. If you could output the full charge of a laptop battery near-instantly, maybe. But you can't. If you had capacitors with the same total charge .. maybe. But then, next step, you need to punch that charge through copper - or gold - wires without burning them out. That's another challenge. Again, no expert, but I really think you'd much prefer to have superconductors for that job. But now you need cooling too, and a power source for that, and ... nah, I think man portable lasguns that can actually do anything dangerous requires more than just 'hook it up to my laptop battery'.
That's what the flux capacitor is for.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Best combo would be a waist portable battery pack linked to a set of capacitors in the gun and using silver ( or gold (1)) wires powering a magnetic rail gun whose projectiles are magnetic encapsulated antimatter pellets of about 1 gram. Every hit generates a micro nuke explosion releasing 180 million kilojoules - more than enough to vaporize whatever it hits and radiation poison anyone nearby as well.
Best combo would be a waist portable battery pack linked to a set of capacitors in the gun and using silver ( or gold (1)) wires powering a magnetic rail gun whose projectiles are magnetic encapsulated antimatter pellets of about 1 gram. Every hit generates a micro nuke explosion releasing 180 million kilojoules - more than enough to vaporize whatever it hits and radiation poison anyone nearby as well.
Including the shooter. Which is in general the big flaw with antimatter as a weapon: most of the energy output is in highly penetrating radiation, which means small amounts of antimatter don't produce much of a blast wave, just a burst of gamma rays that kills everyone nearby.
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Depends on your definition of 'real', if frying a drone's comms with radio waves qualified they're already in use.
Portable (50 lbs or less) laser, plasma, anti-matter =)
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The issue with portable energy weapons is the energy density required of the battery. For a weapon compact enough to be carried by a human, I believe you'd need a battery that's got the energy output of a Davy Crockett.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
A byproduct of introducing anti-matter to matter is temporal disruptions and the proverbial "time rift," rendering time a flat circle and forcing us to experience this thread as an eternal recurrence.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
God, I love this thread! It's just pure nerds like me and I love it!
👋Hiya, Howdy, And Hello! Wanna hang out? 😁
{[Get to know me]}
There is a novel series in which the energy weapons are powerful but the battery only has enough charge for one shot. Basically a laser SMAW.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Not really. You could have a killing laser with a beam energy that's within the reasonable limits of a laptop battery. However, it would require a rather exotic beam profile that we cannot achieve with remotely reasonable mass or efficiency.
AKA it's not actually possible to do it with a laptop battery.
Also, you may have seen some of the many videos of just how explosive a damaged laptop battery can be?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Where’s the railgun people at?
what about electro kenetic energy powered, hyper velocity long range anti-matter rifles?
The reason the thread keeps getting necroed is that antimatter is just normal matter going backward in time (see Feynman diagrams) - the thread keeps meeting its antimatter twin killing both and the super energetic quantum field created rebirth’s both the normal and antimatter threads to continue the time loop the initial poster created with the first post.
matter antimatter reactions today involve individual particles not chunks of matter but they do regularly create antimatter at facilities like CERN, SLAC and Brookhaven. The energy needed to create even these tiny amounts is mind boggling. But it’s sort of feasible to create anti atoms (anti hydrogen). Also keep in mind that the Star Trek warp engines used matter - antimatter reactions to provide the required energy to warp space-time creating the warp drives.
and yes I have worked as a fast food cook and cashier.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Where Wi1dBi11 is taking us, we don't need "roads."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So ... this is one of the multi-quote-doesn't-work-days. Anyways:
I'm one of the railgun people. A railgun is one form of mag rifle. Although the differences between mass driver, railgun, coilgun and mag rifle escape me. I think it's just people trying to sound clever.
Also, I worked for 14 days at McDonalds before getting fired. I think that may be a record of some sort. Frankly, if I hadn't been fired from McD, I would have thought they didn't do that.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
No? I mean, I'm no kind of expert, but the energy output of a laptop battery is substantially too slow to achieve anything weaponizable. If you could output the full charge of a laptop battery near-instantly, maybe. But you can't. If you had capacitors with the same total charge .. maybe. But then, next step, you need to punch that charge through copper - or gold - wires without burning them out. That's another challenge. Again, no expert, but I really think you'd much prefer to have superconductors for that job. But now you need cooling too, and a power source for that, and ... nah, I think man portable lasguns that can actually do anything dangerous requires more than just 'hook it up to my laptop battery'.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
You can't do it at all at the moment, but it's a problem with the rest of the tech stack more than a problem with power supplies.
It takes on the order of a kilojoule of beam energy to kill, which a reasonable laptop battery can manage in 10s. You'd need a capacitor because you need that energy delivered in less than 10s, but the primary source could be a battery. However... with current or near future tech a laser that can output that sort of beam will be big and heavy and have an efficiency of less than 1%.
I think I quoted you, although I was really quoting 6thLyran? Anyways, yes. I suppose a laptop battery could charge the capacitor, but you'd still need your ~1kjoule delivered in maybe a millisecond, bringing us back to (maybe, I dunno) superconductors. Particularly if you need 100kj to achieve a 1kj output. If I'm understanding you right =)
Whereas magrifles do ... sorta credible things already.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Man portable rail guns already exist =) Yay technology!
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
You can get a magnetic rifle that... has worse performance than a conventional rifle. The only man portable energy weapon that's actually worth carrying around at current tech is a taser.
That's what the flux capacitor is for.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Best combo would be a waist portable battery pack linked to a set of capacitors in the gun and using silver ( or gold (1)) wires powering a magnetic rail gun whose projectiles are magnetic encapsulated antimatter pellets of about 1 gram. Every hit generates a micro nuke explosion releasing 180 million kilojoules - more than enough to vaporize whatever it hits and radiation poison anyone nearby as well.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Including the shooter. Which is in general the big flaw with antimatter as a weapon: most of the energy output is in highly penetrating radiation, which means small amounts of antimatter don't produce much of a blast wave, just a burst of gamma rays that kills everyone nearby.