What's a good way to classify railguns?












2














Most weapons and artillery are split by bore diameter, e.g. naval rifles of 203mm, 406mm etc.



Railguns and coilguns probably won't be classified the same way, I think. Cause if multiple models use a 25mm slug or what have you, but they perform differently, what's a good way to separate them?



Muzzle velocity? Like a 2km/s railgun versus a 5km/s one? Or input energy? That then puts forth what's a "realistic" number to power a railgun? Output energy/impact energy have the same problem.










share|improve this question






















  • I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
    – user6760
    1 hour ago
















2














Most weapons and artillery are split by bore diameter, e.g. naval rifles of 203mm, 406mm etc.



Railguns and coilguns probably won't be classified the same way, I think. Cause if multiple models use a 25mm slug or what have you, but they perform differently, what's a good way to separate them?



Muzzle velocity? Like a 2km/s railgun versus a 5km/s one? Or input energy? That then puts forth what's a "realistic" number to power a railgun? Output energy/impact energy have the same problem.










share|improve this question






















  • I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
    – user6760
    1 hour ago














2












2








2







Most weapons and artillery are split by bore diameter, e.g. naval rifles of 203mm, 406mm etc.



Railguns and coilguns probably won't be classified the same way, I think. Cause if multiple models use a 25mm slug or what have you, but they perform differently, what's a good way to separate them?



Muzzle velocity? Like a 2km/s railgun versus a 5km/s one? Or input energy? That then puts forth what's a "realistic" number to power a railgun? Output energy/impact energy have the same problem.










share|improve this question













Most weapons and artillery are split by bore diameter, e.g. naval rifles of 203mm, 406mm etc.



Railguns and coilguns probably won't be classified the same way, I think. Cause if multiple models use a 25mm slug or what have you, but they perform differently, what's a good way to separate them?



Muzzle velocity? Like a 2km/s railgun versus a 5km/s one? Or input energy? That then puts forth what's a "realistic" number to power a railgun? Output energy/impact energy have the same problem.







weapons energy railguns






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 2 hours ago









armorhide406

1338




1338












  • I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
    – user6760
    1 hour ago


















  • I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
    – user6760
    1 hour ago
















I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
– user6760
1 hour ago




I think velocity such as mach 10 etc
– user6760
1 hour ago










3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes


















1














Gauss




The gauss, abbreviated as G or Gs, is the cgs unit of measurement of magnetic flux density (or "magnetic induction") (B). It is named after German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.1[2] One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter. The cgs system has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), which uses the tesla (symbol T) as the unit of magnetic flux density.[3] One gauss equals 1×10−4 tesla (100 μT), so 1 tesla = 10,000 gauss.




I would say the best way to rate a railgun is by its Gs output.






share|improve this answer





















  • Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
    – armorhide406
    2 hours ago










  • Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
    – Monty Wild
    10 mins ago



















0














[ammunition diameter] by [exit velocity]



Essentially, you notate the diameter of the weapon's accommodation, and then notate how fast it can get a slug of that size going. That latter would probably be a range of velocities, given that different lengths of slug will take different energy inputs to accelerate.



Also consider if you want to be able to shoot to wound instead of shooting to kill. Chemical propulsion doesn't allow for that, but a railpistol might.






share|improve this answer





















  • Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
    – Monty Wild
    11 mins ago



















0














Ammunition diameter x ammunition length x launch velocity, also including muzzle energy for those who don't want to work it out for themselves. They'll almost all be Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) so that need not be mentioned unless different in some way, e.g.:



5x50mm 5km/s 98kJ Steel



This could be a man-portable crew-served tripod weapon or vehicle mounted railgun firing steel flechettes



Or, a more terrifying ship-launched:



50x1000mm 7km/s 919MJ DU Guided



Which would be a depleted uranium flechette with a guidance package used for bunker busting.



Or a tank-launched:



20x400mm 4km/s 19.2MJ DU



That pretty much gives all the information that anyone with any knowledge of ballistics would need to work out the terminal effects of the round and its flight performance.






share|improve this answer























    Your Answer





    StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
    return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
    StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
    StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
    });
    });
    }, "mathjax-editing");

    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "579"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f135150%2fwhats-a-good-way-to-classify-railguns%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    3 Answers
    3






    active

    oldest

    votes








    3 Answers
    3






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    1














    Gauss




    The gauss, abbreviated as G or Gs, is the cgs unit of measurement of magnetic flux density (or "magnetic induction") (B). It is named after German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.1[2] One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter. The cgs system has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), which uses the tesla (symbol T) as the unit of magnetic flux density.[3] One gauss equals 1×10−4 tesla (100 μT), so 1 tesla = 10,000 gauss.




    I would say the best way to rate a railgun is by its Gs output.






    share|improve this answer





















    • Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
      – armorhide406
      2 hours ago










    • Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
      – Monty Wild
      10 mins ago
















    1














    Gauss




    The gauss, abbreviated as G or Gs, is the cgs unit of measurement of magnetic flux density (or "magnetic induction") (B). It is named after German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.1[2] One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter. The cgs system has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), which uses the tesla (symbol T) as the unit of magnetic flux density.[3] One gauss equals 1×10−4 tesla (100 μT), so 1 tesla = 10,000 gauss.




    I would say the best way to rate a railgun is by its Gs output.






    share|improve this answer





















    • Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
      – armorhide406
      2 hours ago










    • Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
      – Monty Wild
      10 mins ago














    1












    1








    1






    Gauss




    The gauss, abbreviated as G or Gs, is the cgs unit of measurement of magnetic flux density (or "magnetic induction") (B). It is named after German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.1[2] One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter. The cgs system has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), which uses the tesla (symbol T) as the unit of magnetic flux density.[3] One gauss equals 1×10−4 tesla (100 μT), so 1 tesla = 10,000 gauss.




    I would say the best way to rate a railgun is by its Gs output.






    share|improve this answer












    Gauss




    The gauss, abbreviated as G or Gs, is the cgs unit of measurement of magnetic flux density (or "magnetic induction") (B). It is named after German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss.1[2] One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter. The cgs system has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), which uses the tesla (symbol T) as the unit of magnetic flux density.[3] One gauss equals 1×10−4 tesla (100 μT), so 1 tesla = 10,000 gauss.




    I would say the best way to rate a railgun is by its Gs output.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered 2 hours ago









    Xavon_Wrentaile

    3,371821




    3,371821












    • Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
      – armorhide406
      2 hours ago










    • Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
      – Monty Wild
      10 mins ago


















    • Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
      – armorhide406
      2 hours ago










    • Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
      – Monty Wild
      10 mins ago
















    Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
    – armorhide406
    2 hours ago




    Durr. But then as mentioned, what's a good range of "realistic" numbers a future society would have on their power output? I mean, if you know. I'm about to go do some googling
    – armorhide406
    2 hours ago












    Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
    – Monty Wild
    10 mins ago




    Useless. That doesn't tell anyone what the round will do. Gauss is only of interest to weapon designers, not to their users.
    – Monty Wild
    10 mins ago











    0














    [ammunition diameter] by [exit velocity]



    Essentially, you notate the diameter of the weapon's accommodation, and then notate how fast it can get a slug of that size going. That latter would probably be a range of velocities, given that different lengths of slug will take different energy inputs to accelerate.



    Also consider if you want to be able to shoot to wound instead of shooting to kill. Chemical propulsion doesn't allow for that, but a railpistol might.






    share|improve this answer





















    • Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
      – Monty Wild
      11 mins ago
















    0














    [ammunition diameter] by [exit velocity]



    Essentially, you notate the diameter of the weapon's accommodation, and then notate how fast it can get a slug of that size going. That latter would probably be a range of velocities, given that different lengths of slug will take different energy inputs to accelerate.



    Also consider if you want to be able to shoot to wound instead of shooting to kill. Chemical propulsion doesn't allow for that, but a railpistol might.






    share|improve this answer





















    • Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
      – Monty Wild
      11 mins ago














    0












    0








    0






    [ammunition diameter] by [exit velocity]



    Essentially, you notate the diameter of the weapon's accommodation, and then notate how fast it can get a slug of that size going. That latter would probably be a range of velocities, given that different lengths of slug will take different energy inputs to accelerate.



    Also consider if you want to be able to shoot to wound instead of shooting to kill. Chemical propulsion doesn't allow for that, but a railpistol might.






    share|improve this answer












    [ammunition diameter] by [exit velocity]



    Essentially, you notate the diameter of the weapon's accommodation, and then notate how fast it can get a slug of that size going. That latter would probably be a range of velocities, given that different lengths of slug will take different energy inputs to accelerate.



    Also consider if you want to be able to shoot to wound instead of shooting to kill. Chemical propulsion doesn't allow for that, but a railpistol might.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered 1 hour ago









    G. B. Robinson

    1697




    1697












    • Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
      – Monty Wild
      11 mins ago


















    • Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
      – Monty Wild
      11 mins ago
















    Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
    – Monty Wild
    11 mins ago




    Without length, you can't know the potential penetration.
    – Monty Wild
    11 mins ago











    0














    Ammunition diameter x ammunition length x launch velocity, also including muzzle energy for those who don't want to work it out for themselves. They'll almost all be Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) so that need not be mentioned unless different in some way, e.g.:



    5x50mm 5km/s 98kJ Steel



    This could be a man-portable crew-served tripod weapon or vehicle mounted railgun firing steel flechettes



    Or, a more terrifying ship-launched:



    50x1000mm 7km/s 919MJ DU Guided



    Which would be a depleted uranium flechette with a guidance package used for bunker busting.



    Or a tank-launched:



    20x400mm 4km/s 19.2MJ DU



    That pretty much gives all the information that anyone with any knowledge of ballistics would need to work out the terminal effects of the round and its flight performance.






    share|improve this answer




























      0














      Ammunition diameter x ammunition length x launch velocity, also including muzzle energy for those who don't want to work it out for themselves. They'll almost all be Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) so that need not be mentioned unless different in some way, e.g.:



      5x50mm 5km/s 98kJ Steel



      This could be a man-portable crew-served tripod weapon or vehicle mounted railgun firing steel flechettes



      Or, a more terrifying ship-launched:



      50x1000mm 7km/s 919MJ DU Guided



      Which would be a depleted uranium flechette with a guidance package used for bunker busting.



      Or a tank-launched:



      20x400mm 4km/s 19.2MJ DU



      That pretty much gives all the information that anyone with any knowledge of ballistics would need to work out the terminal effects of the round and its flight performance.






      share|improve this answer


























        0












        0








        0






        Ammunition diameter x ammunition length x launch velocity, also including muzzle energy for those who don't want to work it out for themselves. They'll almost all be Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) so that need not be mentioned unless different in some way, e.g.:



        5x50mm 5km/s 98kJ Steel



        This could be a man-portable crew-served tripod weapon or vehicle mounted railgun firing steel flechettes



        Or, a more terrifying ship-launched:



        50x1000mm 7km/s 919MJ DU Guided



        Which would be a depleted uranium flechette with a guidance package used for bunker busting.



        Or a tank-launched:



        20x400mm 4km/s 19.2MJ DU



        That pretty much gives all the information that anyone with any knowledge of ballistics would need to work out the terminal effects of the round and its flight performance.






        share|improve this answer














        Ammunition diameter x ammunition length x launch velocity, also including muzzle energy for those who don't want to work it out for themselves. They'll almost all be Armour Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) so that need not be mentioned unless different in some way, e.g.:



        5x50mm 5km/s 98kJ Steel



        This could be a man-portable crew-served tripod weapon or vehicle mounted railgun firing steel flechettes



        Or, a more terrifying ship-launched:



        50x1000mm 7km/s 919MJ DU Guided



        Which would be a depleted uranium flechette with a guidance package used for bunker busting.



        Or a tank-launched:



        20x400mm 4km/s 19.2MJ DU



        That pretty much gives all the information that anyone with any knowledge of ballistics would need to work out the terminal effects of the round and its flight performance.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 13 mins ago

























        answered 51 mins ago









        Monty Wild

        23.6k360145




        23.6k360145






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Worldbuilding Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





            Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


            Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f135150%2fwhats-a-good-way-to-classify-railguns%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            A CLEAN and SIMPLE way to add appendices to Table of Contents and bookmarks

            Calculate evaluation metrics using cross_val_predict sklearn

            Insert data from modal to MySQL (multiple modal on website)