Peter Cairns

flamingknives, For me, and in the context of electric armour, it's not the heat thats a factor, I've never thought that they burned, there way through, but the fact that in that state between soild and gas, the structure and even direction of the jet can be altered by a magnetic field. It is that which makes me think that as it reacts to a charge laike a plasma then it probably is one. Peter.

flamingknives. I have been looking at what I can find on two subjects, basically I searched for "Copper, Shaped Charge, Pressure, temprerature", and "Copper, Pressure, Temperature, Plasma". I can't make much head or tail of some of it as it seems to be most solid atate physics papers etc, But I think we might both be right. The Shaped charge does produce a jet at between 7,000m's ( front) and 1,500ms (rear) at a very high pressure, followed by about 80% of the liner, which if the distance to the target id too far, may become a slug. However from the stuff on plasmas, it seems that at that kind of temperature and pressure copper can become a plasma. Now we know tha copper starts as a solid, and that it doesn't vaporise in to a gas, but at those temps and pressures, is it a liquid or is it a plasma. Plasmas are sometimes refered to as a mid state between solid and gas, so the question is if you had to make a choice between four options, which would you say that it was, between detonation and contact....Solid, Liquid, Gas, or Plasma. Most people when asked would say that water was a liquid, but of course it's not, its a molecule (H2O), It can be aliquid, but also a solid or gas... So It could just be that we're both right, though it's hardly the particle wave dicotomy. Peter.

A while back when there was a thread about when people would want CM:SoD, set there seemed to be a fair bit of support for relatively near future. I quite liked the idea of it being set in the real solar system, similiar in period ( if not style) to "Total Recall", or "Outland". However looking at the various moons and things all but Venus really only has a fraction of earths gravity, so the question is this, looking at say, the Moon, Mars and Titan, what would the performance of something like an M-16 be compared to earth, in terms of range, recoil and hitting power. I am sort of guessing that there are a lot of people who know a lot more about ballistics than me on this forum. I was looking at some of the Cassini stuff from Nasa a while back and it looks like Saturn has two small shepard moons in it's rings one of which overtakes the other. I wonder if you could shoot at people on the other moon as it passed? Now that would be a crazy scenario. Peter.

Look on the bright side Steve, if the oil runs out, the mid west will still provide the US with the food it needs, but the chinese want have the fuel to come and get it. Having said that I saw a thing a while back about people already working up provisional designs for nuclear container ships, I bet Bin Laden can't wait for those to come on stream. Peter

Always buy the highest spec you can... Peter.

Steve, No sane person would play it, hell on this forum that is all but a challenge... Peter,

Germany started WW2 as one of the most advanced nations on earth, and in some areas such as chemistry probably was the leader, but at best it was a ten year lead, with the west and US in particular overtaking it by the mid 50"s. Certainly in electronics Britain was well ahead in computing, hell the Gloster meteor was based on Whittle designs that if we had backed them earlier would have seen the RAF fielding Jets by 1942. But the fact that the germans had some mid 1950's technology by the mid forties, is a long way from suggesting that fifty years ago they had discovered things that science has failed to come up with since, or which has somehow been successfully supressed is nonsense. As for using "likeness" as evidence. Well in terms of habit, diet behaviour, size and society, Pandas are a lot like Gorillas, but they aren't related. I don't know who came up with the first Tank with a single gun in the turret, but the fact that everyone else copied it, hardly means the were all secretly sneaking in to his lab. Peter.

I came across a thing today that said by 2090, the earths population will be measured in the millions, all of whom will be living in Antartica, the only place left with a climate where people can survive, now there is a cheery thought. Peter.

Flamingknives, I think I've found the problem , or rather my mistake. It seems the account talks about the charge converting the copper jet, "in to a Plasma" as opposed to it being a plasma, The second reference is apaper that I thought you might find intersting as this seems to be your area of expertise, I am afraid I got a bit lost after about page 2. Peter. Electric reactive armour A new technology of Electric Reactive Armour is in development, where the armour is made up of two or more conductive plates separated by an insulator, creating a high-power capacitor. In operation, a high-voltage power source charges the armour. When an incoming body penetrates the plates and closes the circuit, the capacitor discharges, dumping a great deal of energy into the penetrator, which may vaporize it or even turn it into a plasma, significantly diffusing the attack. It is not public knowledge whether this is supposed to function against both KE-penetrators and shaped charge jets, or only the latter. This technology has not been introduced on any operational platform. (Type this in and you should find the paper) [PDF] Use of images to model off-axis forces in an electric armour array ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML 2 The electric armour array showing the 12 faces of the plates ... distribution and resistance characteristics in plasma injectors for electro- ... eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/9405/ 01/IEE-Proc-vol151no3May2004page151.pdf

A hyper velocity jet of super heated fluid, is a plasma, that's why it can be dispersed by an electric field, in that state mid way between a gas and a solid, Wikipedia says Plasma (physics) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A Plasma lamp, illustrating some of the more complex phenomena of a plasma, including filamentation In physics and chemistry, a plasma is an ionized gas, and is usually considered to be a distinct phase of matter. "Ionized" in this case means that at least one electron has been dissociated from a significant fraction of the molecules. The free electric charges make the plasma electrically conductive so that it couples strongly to electromagnetic fields. This fourth state of matter was first identified by Sir William Crookes in 1879 and dubbed "plasma" by Irving Langmuir in 1928, because it reminded him of a blood plasma [3]. I also found this, IED – Shaped Charges A new type of IED consists of "shaped charge", located under the road surface or at the side of the road. In these explosive devices, a cone (also known as concave) made of copper is covering an explosive charge creating a hollow space in front of and along the axis of the charge. When the explosive is activated, the copper transforms into a forceful jetstream of molten metal also known as "plasma". This plasma jet easily perforates an unprotected steel armor, hitting the surface at a speed of 8,000 meters per second and extremely high pressure. If the plasma is not obstructed by a target within few meters, it solidifies into a kinetic slug which is less effective against heavy armor but is still devastating against softer targets. In both cases, the effect inside the target interior can be catastrophic, especially if it ignites unprotected ammunition stores, causing secondary explosions. Anti-tank shaped charges must be employed with utmost accuracy (activation distance, and design accuracy). Therefore, they are used primarily with buried mines, and lightweight anti-tank weapons. I think this is a misunderstanding more than an arguement, as shape charge warheads do create a plasma that is sensetive to high voltage electricity, however as we see here if the range is to great we get the "Slug" effect. Peter

I was interested in this as it seemed the obvious wway to overcome, the proposed suystem of "electric" armour, which uses a high voltage to disperse and disrupt the plasma of a conventional shaped charge. Peter.

Mikey, Given how the "Skeet" works, its odd that no one has come up with a AT weapon that predetonates and hits with a high velocity "Slug", rather than a shaped charge. If they did I doubt the Strykers armour or "cage", would do much to stop something moving at that speed. Peter

Sgtgoody, Well what about Daleks, they've always scarred the crap out of me. Peter.

I once talked to an RAF pilot who flew Shakeltons and they used to say that "After the first few flights they thought it was only held together by the collective willpower of the crew, but after six months they thought it was held together despite the collectve willpower of the crew". Peter.

Saw a documentary on Foo fighters on the TV in the UK a few moths back. The evidence was shakey at best, but what really struck me was how much the desciption of these so called fighters fitted with well know observstions of "ball Lightning", which has even been seen inside airliners in flight. Again give the balance of probability I'd go for a natural electromagnetic effect or phenomena, like St Elmos fire, caused in part by the aircraft that saw it, long before I swallowed the line that in 1940 a few nazi scientists had built aircraft that we can't even come close too 60 years later. Hell these people didn't even have computers for goods sake. It's like Leonardo helicopter design, he had the right basic idea, but it would never have flown. I've from time to time told my kids to eat carrots because they are good for their eyes. I do it because I want to tell them to eat well, but I was told it by my parents when I was akid. It actually dates back to WW2 when it was the government line, that RAF pilots were eating carrots so thay could see better at night. However that was just a cover to try to mask the fact that we were having success against night attacks because of radar. There would be a huge incentive for the Nazi's to try to disguise what they were up to and to put us off the trail. In addition they were masters of decieving their own people in to thinking that they were invincible. Add to that the fact that Hitlers inner circle would believe anything from the occult to well the occult, and they would probably fund almost any wierd project. Peter.

AKD, Pretty much figured a while back that Jiohms a believer and I am not. As to not needing hypertechnology to make these things fly, Johns right, with them they are impossible because they don't work, and without them they are crap because ou can get far better performance from a plane, that's why there are no Triplane airliners. The kind of spray or close magnetic stuff like maglevatation was tried and got no where, to hark back to stuff that was tested during WW2 and suggest it lead to secret supertechnology is just daft. I think most people have seen the film of the British gaint rocket powered hampster wheel that was designed to clear mines. We tried it, it didn't work so we did other things, end of story. Dozens of titanium stealth versions weren't secretly used to clear Iraqi minefields in GW1. Peter.

In a way yes, but as far as I know it doesn't create maps based on exactly where you are, I thought it was more adstract than that. What I am talking about is closer in that both games will use the same basic engine, rather than the CM;C which are two seperate games. It would also be more flexible than the 1km2 tile system operating in CM:C. Peter.

Like many other areas, I think it should be done outwith player control, ie after a firefight one of your squads one of the guys might suddenly be shown to have e an AK, and sure enogh if you look close at the squad that's what you'll see. But that is not the same as "players" having an option to "rearm" with enemy weapons. In principle I have no objection to a US team manning a D-30 and turning it on the Syrians, but I think it's pretty unlikely, given they'd have no training on it. Re-manning in between scenarios, like an operation might be Okay, but otherwise it should be AI not player driven. Peter.

I refuse to let this topic drift off the radar without one comment, evn if is is, and I am tempting fate here..... "RUBBISH". Peter.

If the ideal liner is a combination of density and ease of manufacture, I'd have thought lead would be pretty much the material of choice. it's cheap, dense, easily moulded, and available world wide. Peter.

Yeah, but Rollstoy, Don't you realise what John is saying, If you have "Electrowonder Drive", it doesn't mater how inefficent it looks, it will outfly anything. Peter.

Wisbech, Thats true, but as 40% of Chinese still work (damned hard) on the land, even takingout girls and the one child policy in ten years they can draw from a labour pool of over 200 million (15% of population), without even touching the non agricultural population. For many of these people a career in a "professional" Chinese army would be very attractive. China has about 21% inder 14, but only 7% over 65. Median 31. In the US I think the figure could be lower as a percentage, because although it is set to reach 300m this year, it has a lot of elderly people. 20% under 14, but 12% over 65, Median 35. So I suspect the combination of a bigger and generally healthier pool of Labour gives China an edge. Could be why the US is putting so much effort in to unmanned systems. On another aside I found out when looking at China that the communist party has 65 million members. Thats about 5% ( 1 in 20) of the population. Does anyone know the combined membership of the Republicans and Democrats as apercentage of the US population? Peter.

No I am saying quite clearly that the laws of physics don't change just because you want them too. There are a whole series of ways in which you can improve the performance of a wing, some of which you mention, but none of the will give sudden incredible performance enhancedments, Things like manouverability and fuel economy improvements don't happen overnight because of some wonder discovery. All the hard evidence on the type of research the germans and others did shows that. Like others at the time and since, they played about with electromagnets and saucers, but they never got anywhere. The germans never got a saucer to do anything more than parlor tricks, and even then they were using enough power to light a small town, to get the performance of a hang glider. As to film or pictures of them in Flight, hell if you believe photos produced in Nazi Germany you'll believe anything. For me the classic is the threat from the Soviet nuclear aeroplane that couls "Fly Forever", a threat that some in the US took seriously (Oh given that you said you had assessed soviet capabilities for a decade, you wouldn't happen to be one of them would you). Problem was to get a 50 ton plane with a 10 ton bomb load off the ground you needed a 150ton shielded reactor. I find it sad that a seemingly educated person should cling to such flimpsy evidence when it's been abandoned by countless people with far better scientific qualifications and credentials. Oh and as a practicing Catholic, I don't have a problem with life on other planets, it's just the idea of them travelling billions of miles in little discs to fondle hick americans that I think is nuts. Peter.

John, Iam not blind. but as I've said elsewhere, I always draw a distinction between, possibility and probability. Many of the thigs you alude to art possibel, but very few if any are probable. As a rational person If I have too bodies of evidence, one extensive and well tested and another fragmentary and untested, I go with the tested one. It's like Intelegent design v evolution. Is ID possible,... YES, Is it likely....NO. The evidence for one theory is huge and growing, sure the theory has changed and evolved, and we've learned more, but with that it has been refined and grown in strength not weakened. ID is based on a handful of bizarre organisism that don't fit in with the vast bulk of nature. Are we to abandon all of that because of a few oddities. Oh and your comment about "throwing the usual equations" is rubbish, you can do a lot to reduce drag, and recent research on rolling leading edges etc, shows that, but the Laws still hold. Better understanding of the laws at different scales allows us with new technology to refine and develope aircraft to create better performance, as seen in wing tip extentions on airliners, but this is an incremental process, not one bound and were all free to float..... Peter.

John' Why would you put a DU warhead in an ATGM, they don't work by Kinetic energy, you'd end up with a slower less manouverable missile( if it flew at all) which would just hit with a dulll thud. Peter.