US Airforce's ABL Laser system for 304?

[mirdin1992]

i wonder can laser pass through mothership shield?

No, if solar radiation from a blue giant can't destroy the Ha'tak in a instant while in the corona, then no a laser will not bypass the shields.

[Cmdr. Setsuna F. Seyei]

i dont think ckwongau was talking about a cutting laser.
i believe he was refering to a targeting laser which is pure light as opposed to a cutting laser which has a more tightly focused beam and has an energy charge to it

[stargater1990]

What if we want to capture someone onboard a smaller ship( like Goa'uld cargo ship)?
The Asgard beam is too powerful, the rapid fireing of a Cargo ship's shield probably get overloaded after a dozen shot by a railgun.
But the fast rapid fire rate probably destory the cargo ship.

The laser can be some sort of slicing tool, kike cuting off a Glider's wings or draw a happy face on the moon.

first of all, if you want to capture someone onboard a cargo ship you dont need these lasers at all to do it. all your have to do is shoot it a couple of times with the rail guns because since its shields are so weak they fail really easily and theres no reason that you cant just fire a couple of shots at a time

secondly, considering how weak its shields are and how much we know about them, it would also be easy to just fire a missle calculated with a large enough yield to disable the ship without destroying it, and then its just a matter of beaming them outta there.

lastly, as we saw in the episode "flesh and blood" the beaming technology can beam someone off a ship just as the shields fail fast enough so you dont really have to worry too much about having a precision strike.

[Michael Jansky]

To original post:

Although it was never shown, there seems to me to be no logical reason why the Asgard beams should not have adjustable yield, from "frying the captain's steak medium rare" to "2 ships out of one in less than a second". :-)

Also, while missiles do suck, there isn't necessarily a connection between high firing speeds and hard to control for the railguns. On the contrary, I was under the impression that real-world railgun prototypes are one of the most precise projectile weapons available (one of the reasons being they're recoilless, so there's no muzzle climb or shaking during fire).

Finally, do we have the technology to build a laser that can pass through shielding?

[deltaCain054]

Also why do people assume that APBs don't travel near light speed like 0.9c-0.999c.

IF you say visuals. They are wrong, in any technology which has the capability to fly across the galaxy in a week and make maneuvers at many thousands of Gs. To fight other ships like fighter planes in WWII is ludicrous.

While the APBs may be capable of traveling near light speed, I do not think they do. They are plasma beams, not lasers. The plasma must be contained and shaped in a magnetic field or something similar. Without containment and guidance the plasma would just disperse. They might not have the ability to manipulate the field to make it travel at rear light speed. This is of course this is just theory.

[thekillman]

the fact that plasma bolts do not disperse advocates some non-mechanical containment field around the bolt, which is not contained by the guns.
after all, in Deadalus Variations, when the ship is hit, the cannons fail, yet the bolts continue.


so the bolts are self-containing, and so are the beams.

has nothing to do with containment.

[mirdin1992]

Also, while missiles do suck, there isn't necessarily a connection between high firing speeds and hard to control for the railguns. On the contrary, I was under the impression that real-world railgun prototypes are one of the most precise projectile weapons available (one of the reasons being they're recoilless, so there's no muzzle climb or shaking during fire).

Stop right there, whoever said to you that railguns/coilguns have no recoil please give a smack to him please.

A railgun is like a giant magnet that pulls the projectile forward. Think like when you bring a magnet in you left hand to a metallic object in your right hand together you feel a force in both hands. Not just in your right hand that is holding the metallic bar.

Finally, do we have the technology to build a laser that can pass through shielding?

One, what kind of shielding are you talking about? There are several lasers that are designed to shoot down missiles and prototipes that could kill a MBT but the limiting factor of all of these is power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1(read this)

[thekillman]

A railgun is like a giant magnet that pulls the projectile forward. Think like when you bring a magnet in you left hand to a metallic object in your right hand together you feel a force in both hands. Not just in your right hand that is holding the metallic bar.

INCORRECT.

that's a coilgun.

a railgun are two metal bars, connected to a powersupply. put a bullet in there. it completes the circuit. the metal bars (rails, hence it's name) generate a magnetic field. because the bullet is in an external magnetic field, has a current running through it, and is peripendicular to the magnet field, it fells lorentz force. F(l)=BIL
(basic equation) which means the caliber of the bullet matters. so does the amount of Amps (for non-superconductiven wires, this means the metal heats up due to resistance) and the magnetic field (which is generated by the electricity).

in real life, Railguns aren't common weapons because:

-material stress. not only does the bullet feel lorentz force, so do the rails. this means your barrel has to be pretty tough. also, the intense friction means your barrel heats up and wears down. it's why portable high-energy railguns will never be. it'll kill the gunner too.

-energy requirements. it takes a ton of energy. most railguns have a small building next to it filled with capacitors.


this means that the most likely application is on a ship: plenty of room, plenty of power.


in stargate, these problems are easily solved:

-trinium and naquahdah can not only reinforce the barrel, naquahdah can make it superconductive, taking electric resistance out of the equation

-naquahdah generators easily provide sufficient power.

[mirdin1992]

anyway its not recoilless. There a lot of people who seem to think that railguns violate Newtons third law for some reason

[thekillman]

never head of such people.

also, a common confusion is RAIL gun and RAY gun. some media (quake, C&C3) use ray-beams to show the bullet's insane speed (at close distances, there's no bullet or dot of light, it would actually be more like a flamethrower near the barrel and a beam of light further away) which makes railguns appear like rayguns. even though they are fundamentally different.

[mirdin1992]

never head of such people.

Stumble across a few every couple of month or so.

I once read a fanfic in set in the near future. Aliens invade, weapons are completely useless and they can shrug 100 hits from a M1. So they get enemy power source, strap it to our tech, gigawatt(low power I know) lasers and 0.5c rail guns for infantry are made, then we fight a decent war because they are tactically incompetent. And the authors explanation for no recoil is that they use magnets

[K^2]

Wow... Is it really that difficult to run a brilliant idea you just had for a book by a physicist? I know there aren't a lot of us left these days, but that's what internet is for. I have a few people on my MSN list who usually chime in with these kinds of questions. They'd be like, "Is it possible to...", and I'd be like, "No.", and they'd be like, "Awww....".

[deltaCain054]

the fact that plasma bolts do not disperse advocates some non-mechanical containment field around the bolt, which is not contained by the guns.
after all, in Deadalus Variations, when the ship is hit, the cannons fail, yet the bolts continue.


so the bolts are self-containing, and so are the beams.

has nothing to do with containment.

What I meant was the magnetic coils emit an electromagnetic field that shape, contain, and guide the plasma. Just because the APBWs go down doesn't mean the magnetic coils are destroyed, it could simply mean the emitters are damaged or the power conduits to the main capacitors are damaged.

[K^2]

If you could contain plasma from such a distance remotely, you could just tear the enemy ship apart, and not bother with sending bolts of plasma.

[mirdin1992]

Maybe the bolt is self containing. Also plasma can mean that it is very hot and not that its actual plasma.