it was supposed to be homemade feta - unfortunately it appears that my sanitisation procedure was inadequate as a pink mold appears to be forming on them
Not only are they aesthetically pleasing but laser revolvers actually make a lot of sense. The big obstacle to making a practical handheld laser weapon is not a lack of energy density in the beam itself (easily rectified by using nano/microsecond pulses rather than a continuous beam) or the energy density of power supplies but rather the low discharge rate of batteries. The obvious solution is to use capacitors instead, since they can release their kilojoules of energy in a fraction of a second, much faster than any battery. No self-respecting space cowboy wants to be limited to just six shots, but this can be solved by connecting an external battery pack to the pistol by a cable to provide the capacitors with a recharge between shots. And if concealment rather than ammo capacity is the priority rather, then you could forgo the external battery in favour of simply carrying some spare caps.
I'm working on a future history project spanning the next thousand years, and I've had an interesting time working out the power supplies that will allow laser pistols and gauss rifles to eventually replace old style chemical slugthrowers. I wish to share my work for other writers who want to make their futuristic weapons a bit more realistic, or at least consistent. If my maths is wrong feel free to correct me. Modern power supplies are useless for the task - our capacitors dont provide enough joules and our batteries dont provide enough watts. Future power supplies may be able to solve this, but Routledge's Law claims that "Any interesting battery material for a laser gun would be more usefully deployed as an explosive warhead." I think that is based on the misconception that laser efficiency cannot improve beyond the present and that their only damage mechanism can be as a brute force "heat ray". If Dr John Schilling and Dr Luke Campbell of Atomic Ro...
Comments
Post a Comment