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A railgun or rail gun, sometimes referred to as a rail cannon, is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high-velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high kinetic energy to inflict damage. [ 2 ]
The Gauss gun (often called a Gauss rifle or Gauss cannon) is a device that uses permanent magnets and the physics of the Newton's cradle to accelerate a projectile. Gauss guns are distinct from and predate coil guns , although many works of science fiction (and occasionally educators [ 1 ] ) have confused the two.
In a cellular automaton, a gun is a pattern with a main part that repeats periodically, like an oscillator, and that also periodically emits spaceships. There are then two periods that may be considered: the period of the spaceship output, and the period of the gun itself, which is necessarily a multiple of the spaceship output's period.
A particle-beam weapon uses a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles to damage the target by disrupting its atomic and/or molecular structure. A particle-beam weapon is a type of space-based directed-energy weapon, which directs focused energy toward a target using atomic scale particles.
In 1933, Texan inventor Virgil Rigsby developed a stationary coil gun that was designed to be used similarly to a machine gun. It was powered by a large electrical motor and generator. [7] It appeared in many contemporary science publications, but never piqued the interest of any armed forces. [8]
The system (diagram right) is a feedback control system in which a feedback signal from a sensor representing the current position of the gun is compared with the control signal which represents the desired position, and the difference is amplified by the amplidyne generator to turn the gun mount motor. The components are:
Knock-down test of a 109 mph (175 km/h; 49 m/s) vortex ring gun. The vortex ring gun is an experimental non-lethal weapon for crowd control that uses high-energy vortex rings of gas to knock down people or spray them with marking ink or other chemicals. The concept was explored by the US Army starting in 1998, and by some commercial firms.
A modulated neutron initiator is a neutron source capable of producing a burst of neutrons on activation. It is a crucial part of some nuclear weapons, as its role is to "kick-start" the chain reaction at the optimal moment when the configuration is prompt critical.