25 replies to this topic

[Nasty McBadman]

PPCs work in a similar fashion to the current line of Turbo Encabulators . I know it is a different application but the basic core science is the same.

[Kristov Kerensky]

http://en.wikipedia....cle_beam_weapon

Actually a weapon design that militaries have been working on for a while now. The PPC of the BTU is just one possible version of how such a weapon would work.

[Alan Grant]

Aniquilator6, on 10 December 2011 - 10:48 AM, said:

What if the second PPC strikes the same hole in the armor? o.O

xD

Then a new universe is born at the impact site.

[Strum Wealh]

Nasty McBadman, on 11 December 2011 - 01:37 PM, said:

PPCs work in a similar fashion to the current line of Turbo Encabulators . I know it is a different application but the basic core science is the same.

Did... did someone just out-technobabble Sam Carter and The Doctor?

CaveMan, on 09 December 2011 - 09:20 AM, said:

http://en.wikipedia....cle_beam_weapon

The charged particles are neutralized before the beam is emitted, but retain their high momentum.

You'd probably also use a laser to "clear the way" for the particle beam just before it fires, lowering the density of the air and ensuring any moisture/dust in the path of the beam is gone.

Pretty much what I was thinking:
1.) Charge the PPC's capacitors.
(Energy stored, joules) = 0.5 * C * V^2
C = capacitance in farads
V = potential difference across capacitors' plates in volts
2.) Fire low-power (compared to weapons; still required to be in the terawatt range) infrared or ultraviolet laser at your target.
This creates an ionized path/"plasma channel" between the PPC's emitter/barrel and the target's surface.
3.) Discharge the PPC's capacitors.
The energy released travels from the location of the PPC (q+) to the target (q-) in what is basically an electric current moving through a plasma.

This would be something similar to the process of "laser-triggered lightning"; the BattleTech PPC may represent the perfection of such technology married to something much like a Tesla coil.

Or something very similar to an electrolaser.

It would serve to explain/justify the repeated description of PPC salvos as "cerulean arcs/beams of man-made lightning" (as that's pretty much what it would be - man-made lightning caused by the projection of electrons (particles) that gives the Particle Projector Cannon its name) as well as the workings of and need for the field inhibitor - it would generate an electric (or magnetic?) field that would mitigate/prevent some form of harmful feedback along the original plasma channel.

It also serves to explain the Blue Shield Particle Field Damper (which apparently also includes some form of turbine if it's susceptible to damage by sucking up debris and such) - it draws in atmosphere, ionizes it, and ejects it, creating a cloud of ions around the target that reduces the potential across the PPC's plasma channel and dissipates some of the energy of the PPC's salvo through the ion cloud into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of energy that can be delivered to the target.

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Yes, I am aware that the above is total fan-wankery with a spattering of actual science thrown in to make it sound good... but it does sound good enough to be a decent in-universe explanation for a weapon mounted to a 12-meter tall bipedal tank powered by a portable, ridiculously-efficient ("can usually last for decades on a few kilograms of hydrogen"... really?! ) fusion reactor, doesn't it?

[wpmaura]

we have no idea how they work not even in concept, if we did we would have them mounted on tanks.

[Kristov Kerensky]

wpmaura, on 11 December 2011 - 05:08 PM, said:

we have no idea how they work not even in concept, if we did we would have them mounted on tanks.

Uh..we DO know how they work, we DO have some working models, but they ain't cost effective or combat ready by any means. We have gauss weapons as well, and exoskeletons being designed for combat conditions.