Comments on: Frank on Science!: Railguns

By: IMAO » Blog Archive » No Boom?

IMAO » Blog Archive » No Boom? — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:04:23 +0000

[...] the readers of IMAO is that you are intellectuals who always get to the heart of the manner. When I posted about railguns, many of you were concerned there won’t be a boom when they are [...]

By: SLK

SLK — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:29:49 +0000

Railguns are gay, because they do not shoot rails. If they shot rails– say, nice big rails that a train would ride on– well, then, that would be worth something, wouldn’t it.

By: davis,br

davis,br — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:14:30 +0000

Railguns are so yesterday.

It’s the orbiting platform used to launch smart-tungsten-rod inertia weapons that are the wave of the future.

You’ve all seen the pix of smart bombs delivered by aero-based weapons platforms to take out trucks, buildings, etc. in the last couple of decades.

See. The tungsten rods won’t sublimate (burn up) on reentry (kind of like TIG welding). Their on-board smart electronics can be used for laser-homing for precision targeting, or GPS for general battlefield use.

They’re relatively light (low boost cost). The inertial impact of even small rods from even near-Earth orbit would be …call it very interesting to watch what it does to, say, a terrorist training camp. Or a small mountain even. Or …heh …maybe a deeply buried reactor that is churning out weapons grade materials for fission/fusion war-tech. Heh. I repeat, heh.

……..

And if we ain’t already got that shit in orbit, someone in the 5 Side isn’t using our Nevada R&D investment very wisely.

By: ussjimmycarter

ussjimmycarter — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:20:29 +0000

How are you going to put a silencer on the Sonic Boom! That’s why it’s called a BOOM! You can’t silence a BOOM! Geez! Some guys just don’t get Science the way the rest of us get it real good!

By: Basil

Basil — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:22:03 +0000

Can you attach the rails to the floor trim? That way, when the cat runs by me into the house, I could throw the switch on the railgun/floor trim, propelling the cat back out the door. Or into the door. Either works.

By: BigRichardSmall

BigRichardSmall — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:34:11 +0000

Railguns are awsome. The SDF1 had rail guns, and they stopped the Zentradi from destroying earth… Oh wait no they didn’t. What about a gigantic cannon in Alaska that’s powered by Earths magnetic field? Is Science! working on that?

By: Fifty5thState

Fifty5thState — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:30:34 +0000

Does the boom have to be from the gun for it to be cool? Because the projectile from the railgun creates a sonic boom. but what is even cooler than than a weapon with a big boom? A weapon that makes a big boom but has a silencer! Think like stealth Dinosaurs. And therefor I will state that we need to be researching a silencer for railgun projectiles as well as continued research of railguns.

By: TerribleTroy

TerribleTroy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:56:08 +0000

Wait a minute here….. did somebody say Frank is a “poof”?? I thought he was married? Or is that just his cover to hide his poofiness? Im startin to wonder bout this Frank guy….. first it was the whole “twitter” thing, (cant get much poofier than twitter) and now the hatin of Ms. Palin. Everybody knows real men love Ms. Palin

By: Nunya

Nunya — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:39:47 +0000

Yeah but what good is awesome weaponry if we have a Pu$$y-in-Chief who is too afraid to use it?

By: Plentyobailouts

Plentyobailouts — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:27:53 +0000

railguns go pffft. No boom!! no likey pffft. Want boom!!

Like cannon. cannon go BOOM! gun go boom. likey cannon and gun.

Rocket go pffft BOOM. Really likey rocket.

Sarah Palin go Boom!! Like Palin, Frank go ehhh poof? Verdict still out.

By: innominatus

innominatus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:23:32 +0000

Ecofreaks with mass-transit fetishes want to get us out of our cars and onto high-speed trains. When we tell them we’re working on a rail system that goes like 8000fps on a single magnetic impulse, they’re going to be very excited.

By: Silicon Valley Jim

Silicon Valley Jim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:53:13 +0000

Railguns aren’t available at amazon.com yet; I just checked.

By: shiggz

shiggz — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:22:43 +0000

“For the longest time, scientists looked at the magnets holding up pictures of their nephews on the refrigerator and wondered how they could be used to kill people. The answer is railguns”

If humor was measured like Olympic gymnastics id say you stuck the landing.

By: Veeshir

Veeshir — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:14:48 +0000

Don’t we need to defeat the level boss to get the railgun?

By: IH8Socialist

IH8Socialist — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:12:16 +0000

what would be better a Mexi-railgun or the Mexi-cannon???

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:54:30 +0000

I just knew Ed would show up! So, if Palin came out for railguns, that would do it for you, Frank?

OK, Palin, come out in favor of railguns! And quit being so ‘nice.’ Show us your claws and fangs.

By: IH8Socialist

IH8Socialist — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:44:02 +0000

now if we could use hippies and monkeys as the railgun projectiles.

By: Ussjimmycarter

Ussjimmycarter — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:35:04 +0000

I’m still stuck on Frank J hating Sarah Palin! Regarding railguns…I don’t care what else you do with them if you promise to strap Barney Frank onto a chunk of steel and fire him up Obama’s ass the next time he bends over to apologize for being such a tool!

[The main thing that's been delaying railguns is Sarah Palin. -Ed.]

By: MarkoMancuso

MarkoMancuso — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:30:45 +0000

Why are we wasting money on this sissy magnet crap when we could give every registered member of the Awesomely Awesome Conservative Awesome Party a helicopter, a mini-gun, and a mount for the mini-gun?

By: Son of Bob

Son of Bob — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:18 +0000

But, is there a plan in place yet to mount railguns on dinosaurs?

[Dinosaurs don't like magnets. -Ed.]

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:19:41 +0000

In the meantime, let’s use ‘em as a replacement for steam catapults on carriers. Our enemies will quail in terror when they see electromagnetic catapults launching fighters at ‘em. Where’s USSJC on this issue?

And if you ever run out of ammo (something the Democrats in DC want to ensure ), you just put a can of Spam in the catapult and launch it at the enemy. I’d bet a nickel you could sink an enemy ship with a can of Spam that way.