Poll: Railguns or Lasers: which do you prefer

[FalloutJack]

Neverminding the sci-fi edge of these two devices, I like how technology is handling them in reality. That is, the laser and the railgun is real, and there is a marked difference in performance.

The laser, funnily enough, takes after ummm...do you guys remember lasers in Gargoyle? They were described as basically invisible particle beams with the laser light included for aiming purposes. I've seen examples of the laser of today, especially the mining laser. It's the same principle, really. However, they're quite energy-consuming and inefficient at this time. Cost of power and building resources and all.

The railgun...well, we've seen the videos of what a homebrew, much-weaker-than-the-real-thing version of the railgun can do, right? People have actually done it and gotten some rather positive results, magnetically-driving metal objects at supreme speeds. It's just funny as hell. Railgun and likewise weaponry is simply a different and more powerful technology to fling projectiles. It's easier to create and obviously effective.

So...yeah. Railgun.

 

[Squilookle]

Railguns are just badass. Lasers are for show, railguns get shit done. With big explosions.

Thought you were going to say 'lasers for show, railguns for a pro'

And yeah, railguns. Lasers aren't much use unless you can hold the beam on a target continuously. Railguns get shit done and leave before you even know they were there.

 

[Memor-X]

i do both or fund research into making a hybrid of the two, not sure how, i would mainly focus my efforts as president into making my country for self efficient so we don't need to rely on other countries, that way we can have an impervious defense and let our enemies get worn out and broke from trying to destroy us then just march in and kick them while they are down, he, he, he, he

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Railgun, but I would like a maser instead of a laser, more pew pew.

 

[tzimize]

Railguns. Because of Quake 2, Q2DM1. Good times

 

[Spade Lead]

Kinetic is just better. The only limit to its power is the speed you can throw projectiles at.

I imagine one day we will be hurling projectiles the size of a Volkswagen beetle (like the old Iowa class battleships) at 3/4 the speed of light. How's that for a kinetic impact?

 

[Spade Lead]

Spoiler: EDIT- This helps my decision as well

Every five seconds, the main gun of an Everest-class dreadnought accelerates 1 to 1.3 percent of light speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kiloton bomb. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-b**** in space. Now, Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's First Law?

- Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!

No credit for partial answers, maggot!

- Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!

Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going till it hits something. That can be a ship, or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your damn targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give you a firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it!" This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!

Oh My God, what is that quote from? I must see and/or read it soonest!

 

[Freechoice]

Spoiler: EDIT- This helps my decision as well

Every five seconds, the main gun of an Everest-class dreadnought accelerates 1 to 1.3 percent of light speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kiloton bomb. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-b**** in space. Now, Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's First Law?

- Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!

No credit for partial answers, maggot!

- Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!

Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going till it hits something. That can be a ship, or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your damn targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give you a firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it!" This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!

Oh My God, what is that quote from? I must see and/or read it soonest!

Mass Effect 2

 

[latenightapplepie]

Railguns.

Lasers are only cool when they form the blade of a melee weapon. Then they are super badass.

 

[Ikaruga33]

From my understanding a laser is a beam of rly fucking hot light

It goes at speed of light and as it is light goes in a straight line meaning that it is extremely easy to aim

Also dont have to carry around ammo

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I saw an episode of Bang goes the theory were they were using an extremely powerful laser to heat hydrogen atoms to perform nuclear fushion, if they get it right (Although it's more a matter of when at this point), a tiny bit of hydrogen will be able to produce exponetially more power than a nuclear power plant ever could, and I think there will be a lot less hazardous waste (Although I'm not sure at that)

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Lasers.
They have an unlimited range and there's no need to store ammo.
Now if only we could have a nuclear reactor to power the laser...

Maybe we should build one into a sphere-shaped space-station...

 

[Spade Lead]

Mass Effect 2

I haven't gotten to that part yet... I am just past two hours in, and I bought the game nearly a month ago... Shame on me...


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[WolfEdge]

Railguns WITH lasers.

HA.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Lasers.
They have an unlimited range and there's no need to store ammo.
Now if only we could have a nuclear reactor to power the laser...

Electricity is its ammo, and they need a fair bit of it in order to do real damage and not just burn someone's eye out.

So you need a giant (and heavy) generator, capacitor or battery to make them effective.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

Kinetic energy FTW!

GO RAILGUN!

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Lasers.
They have an unlimited range and there's no need to store ammo.
Now if only we could have a nuclear reactor to power the laser...

Electricity is its ammo, and they need a fair bit of it in order to do real damage and not just burn someone's eye out.

So you need a giant (and heavy) generator, capacitor or battery to make them effective.

But electricity is easy enough to generate, mass isn't.
Sure, you need some space for the generator, but it can also power your ship's engines, life-support and other stuff that requires electricity while you're not firing the laser.

 

[RA92]

Lasers. Because gravity and wind factor doesn't fuck up its targeting.

Yeah, I hate sniping.

 

[Spade Lead]

All of you people are forgetting about the laws of physics that make a laser INCREDIBLY hard to aim in atmosphere...

Lasers are beams of light, and as such, are subject to difraction in atmosphere. A laser beam tends to "bloom" outward as it travels through the atmosphere. Focusing them with mirrors is hard to do, and gets harder as the range you want them to fire increases without subsidiary mirrors. (The Star Wars laser intended for Missile defense in the '80s used a series of orbital mirrors to realign the laser, as well as guide it back onto target) Lasers also lack the punch of a kinetic weapon, so it would be hard to make it penetrate a properly shielded hull such as a Star Destroyer, or cruiser from Stargate. Your only hope to get through the simple shielding that would be required for simple navigation around a solar system (Space is by no means empty... Trust me, I just finished my first semester of astronomy) is to overwhelm the shielding, and kinetic impact delivers more power per cubic meter than any laser ever could... Especially if the impact is in the million gigaton range...

 

[Thaluikhain]

All of you people are forgetting about the laws of physics that make a laser INCREDIBLY hard to aim in atmosphere...

Eh, what about what happens when the ship is surrounded by fog? Or it rains?

It'd look good, but probably, as they say, from a distance.