64 replies to this topic

[Y E O N N E]

Roland09, on 22 December 2018 - 01:48 PM, said:

Oh, is it?

Show me some math, please: A gauss slug is accelerated to 2,000 m/s and weighs how much? How many machine gun bullets are accelerated to what speed in a given time and weigh how much, multiplied by the number of machine guns?

By sheer mass alone, the gauss gun can absorb how much heat, compared the mass of the machine guns?

Orders of magnitude?

Each Gauss round is 100 kg, since we have 10 per metric ton (1000 kg). At 2,000 m/s the energy is going to be:

(100 kg * (2000 m/s)^2)/2, or 200 MJ.

Each MG round is 0.5 kg, since we have 2000 per metric ton. They are hitscan in MWO, but the animation looks like ~ 1200 m/s based on other weapons that are 1200 m/s (AC/10), so let's call it that (for reference, a modern 0.50 BMG round travels at ~ 860-930 m/s and only weighs around 50 grams). The energy per round there is:

(0.5 kg * (1200 m/s)^2)/2, or 0.36 MJ

And that's just the energy in the round. The power needed to get it there depends on how much time and distance you have available to you. Trying to get something to 2000 m/s in a meter or two is way more intensive than trying to do it in a few kilometers. Like, the release is damn near instantaneous, so let's call that 0.1 second; your energy requirements to get to 200 MJ in 0.1 seconds is 2000 MW. To get your MG round to 0.36 MJ in the same time takes only 3.6 MW.

So it's not just an order of magnitude, it's several orders of magnitude.

[Roland09]

Thanks for doing the math.

Two factors you forgot is to multiply the 0.36 MJ from the hypothetical mg bullet with the number of projectiles in the same amount of time it takes to recharge the gauss, multiplied by the number of machine guns, which gives a somewhat different picture.

[Y E O N N E]

Roland09, on 22 December 2018 - 04:26 PM, said:

Thanks for doing the math.

Two factors you forgot is to multiply the 0.36 MJ from the hypothetical mg bullet with the number of projectiles in the same amount of time it takes to recharge the gauss, multiplied by the number of machine guns, which gives a somewhat different picture.

It doesn't really paint much of a different picture because it isn't cumulative. In 10 seconds of firing 12 of these things I've still only generated 432 MJ, and that's 10 seconds the cooling systems have had to work. Contrast with a pair of Gauss which do 400 MJ nearly instantly, giving the cooling systems no time to work at all.

It also gets more complicated, because the math we're doing is assuming that the MG damage comes entirely from the kinetic energy in the projectile. This may not be the case. We could be firing semi-explosive rounds or something, to shred the ablative armor on 'Mechs, and so you wouldn't need as much energy per projectile. Gauss we know to be firing inert slugs relying on pure KE, so no help there.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 22 December 2018 - 06:18 PM.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

Roland09, on 22 December 2018 - 01:48 PM, said:

Oh, is it?

Show me some math, please: A gauss slug is accelerated to 2,000 m/s and weighs how much? How many machine gun bullets are accelerated to what speed in a given time and weigh how much, multiplied by the number of machine guns?

By sheer mass alone, the gauss gun can absorb how much heat, compared the mass of the machine guns?

Orders of magnitude?

Coilgun and conventional ballistic weapons have completely different modes of action.

conventional projectiles are forced through a pipe by means of an explosion, whereby still high friction heat arises, a Gauss-bullet is driven and guided by means of magnetic field whereby however large heat by the inductive heating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun


In MWO additional heat but would make the weapon unusable, since it is already very very limited by very high weight, high risk of explosion in a hit, high space and egringe ammunition .. Whoever has a problem with a gauss, should move more and more not too long to stand at one point and train his abilities to fire in the run as well as to be able to hit longer distances.

and never run headlong into a Gauss mech.

[FromHell2k]

If you want to add heat to the GR, you'd have to remove the charge up and risk of it blowing up.