TFLYTSNBN wrote:tlb wrote:It sounds as though the only purpose of that story was to make fun of the teenagers that were hunting with you, otherwise it was a waste of meat and ammunition.
The story wasn't exactly complimentary to the teenagers, but they were on their first elk hunt.
It does serve the purpose of demonstrating what the difficulties of having some type of recoilless pulsar would be.
Fortunately; Weber's descriptions of pulsar weapons suggests that while they are hypervelocity weapons, they fire relatively low mass projectiles which keeps the recoil impulse within the realm of what is common for conventional firearms.
Anyone who shoots (as Weber dies) understands that the reciprocating mass of the slide (telescoped bolt) on a semiautomatic pistol reduces the felt recoil as compared to a revolver or bolt action pistol. Your can take this principle even further by having the entire barrel as well as the bolt and bolt carrier assembly reciprocate to absorb recoil. The Barrett semiautomatic, .50 caliber rifles use this type of system as well as a muzzle brake to reduce the recoil force on the shooter.
You could also utilize the counter recoil principle in which the bolt, bolt carrier and barrel assembly are restrained until firing then released to move forward under spring tension then the projectile is accelerated at nearly the full forward position. The momentum exchange stupid the forward travel of the bolt, bolt carrier and barrel assembly and pushes them back again. The are issues with maintaining accuracy.
All of this discussion ignores the reality that Honorverse Pulsar weapons are hypervelocity but the projector masses are very small plus there are no propellant gases to add to the recoil. As a result, they would probably be no more difficult to shoot than conventional firearms.
A major issue with Pulsar weapons would be areodynamic drag. Drag force is roughly proportional to velocity squared. (The drag coefficient varies with velocity). A closer approximation of that velocity decreases with distance as an exponential decay function. Think of it as analogous to respective decay but with a half distance rather than a half life. As an example, certain 12 gauge shotgun slugs will lose about half their kinetic energy during the first 100 meters of travel and half of their muzzle velocity within about 200 meters. However; they are still traveling at about 700 feet per second at 200 yards which will make them very lethal. More areodynamic projectiles with higher sectional densities of the type used by rifles have much longer half distances.
Honorverse Pulsar projectiles will trend to experience far more areodynamic drag because they are jupiter velocity. However; Weber describes the projectiles as long, slender days which have low cross sectional area and very low drag coefficient. I would expect a pulsar dart that has a muzzle velocity of say 5 kilometres per second to stop be doing along at about 2 kilometres per second at 1,000 meters.
It isn'tt exactly complimentary to you either. I'm part Indian and I understood long ago why my people hated White Skins hunting on Indian land. A bunch of novices who totally disrespect nature. What a shame. Wasted life and meat. You may as well use rocket launchers to hunt just as you use explosives to fish. I could catch the elk and bring him home ALIVE! Before I was a yr-old in teenage skin.
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tlb wrote:@cthia: it would be best to stick to those lines, rather than trying to invent what mechanism would actually be used in the Honorverse.
I can agree with that. As an engineer, a major hindrance is not knowing what materials or methods are available for use.
My point is that in the HV the application of all the laws of physics would be mated to futuristic materials and manufacturing techniques and applied to the principles we have learned thus far. With nothing short of magical results. The same mechanisms bearing the same name in the HV will only have "the name" in common.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote:“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”