To clarify the guns in the 22nd century:
Normal guns fire bullets using explosives. They go about mach 1, maybe 1.5.
Railguns (like Jacob’s pistol) fire tiny needles using electricity. They go about mach 5.
Gauss guns fire bullet-sized projectiles using magnetic coils, and they go about mach 3.
But if you’re like Jacob, and you have enough experience with weapon design that you’ve actually helped write some of the specs for them…you can pull off a few tricks.
↓ Transcript
Kentaro: Whoa, what? These gauss guns fire slugs at mach three. You can't dodge that. How did you -- Oh. The firing arcs.
Jacob: Only five and a half degrees on the side guns. That's why we gave these drones a turret. But it takes that a full second to slew one-eighty.
Kentaro: This is why I respect you, Jacob. You truly are good at your job. I really don't want to kill you. But if you'd let me shoot all the flesh off your legs that would be great --
Jacob: Only five and a half degrees on the side guns. That's why we gave these drones a turret. But it takes that a full second to slew one-eighty.
Kentaro: This is why I respect you, Jacob. You truly are good at your job. I really don't want to kill you. But if you'd let me shoot all the flesh off your legs that would be great --
I’m so reading that last part as the voice of that guy from Office Space.
Dodging to avoid the aimpoint of a gun isn’t really a special wizardly trick…
I would check your speeds again. Handguns shoot around mach1. The original m16 round was close to mach 3 since then it has gotten progressively heavier bullets and shorter barrels but its around mach 2.5-2.7 now depending on the harrel.
Hmn, my initial research showed muzzle speeds maxing out at M1.5 for handguns. I see what you’re talking about for high-end assault rifles, though. Maybe I’ll bump some of these numbers up when I get home tonight.
The fastest commercial rifle ammo out there is 220 Swift. mach 4. 50 BMG ammo, aka similar in size to the drone guns you show, pushes a 650 grain projectile at mach 2.8
the 20mm autocannon round pushes at 1600 grain bullet at mach 2.8
An Abrahms battle tank main gun pushes a dart that weighs 10 pounds downrange at Mach 4.8.
A battleship at 2,700 pound shell at mach 2.
For solid shot, the number many use is muzzle energy. Multiply the speed in FPS by the weight to get ‘foot pounds’ of muzzle energy. This also gives the recoil impulse. A human is limited in how much recoil we can withstand on our hands, or our shoulders.
A huge Smith and Wesson .500 SW magnum revolver produces over 2,800 foot pounds of muzzle energy.that is a 300 grain bullet at mach 1.8
A needle gun, like the agents carry, would use darts of 8 grain size, assuming flechette dart size and thus large magazine capacity.
To achieve magnum pistol like performance, allowing them to target vehicles or hardened targets, they would need mach 10 muzzle velocity. Mach 6.5, or ~7400 fps would put them at 45ACP milspec ammo muzzle energy. Mach 5 puts them in the 9mm power range for muzzle energy. If full auto, they would be tough to control even for trained near superhuman with anything above 9mm muzzle energy levels. You really need the leverage of a stock, vs just a pistol grip, to shoot full auto.
Anything able 400 ish foot pounds of energy is difficult to shot full auto from a pistol, anything above 1500 is punishing out of a lightweight rifle length gun. Anything above 2000 really needs to be a 20 or 30 pound platform,and will be punishing for the user to fire on full auto.
This is the first comic where I stopped to wonder how they got so many words out in such short times. (Maybe because the other guys were obviouslytalkingfast.)
Thanks, Kylekatern and Dwwolf! I’ll make some changes later on.
It looks like the drones are only able to shoot at things that are at about the same elevation as they are (assuming they are on level ground), so maybe Jacob could stay out of harm’s way for a while just by finding a high spot he can stand or sit on?
“For solid shot, the number many use is muzzle energy. Multiply the speed in FPS by the weight to get ‘foot pounds’ of muzzle energy. This also gives the recoil impulse.”
This is totally wrong physics. Kinetic energy is 1/2 mass * velocity^2. Momentum is mass * velocity. They are very much not the same thing.