Em-33 - Plasma Weapons

[Colt]

Well, I finally got hold of a typewriter. Albeit it is from the mid-eighties ( as far as I can tell) and it was made in Britain. It is so old that the rubber shock absorbers inside of it (it is consantly running, not sure what exactly causes the vibrations) are decaying into a tar-like substance so I have removed most of them. So lately I have been sitting up to around 1:30/2:00 in the morning typing on the damn thing. It has the peculiar quirk of replacing p with periods sometimes and the same thing happens with y/w and g/x. I also type too fast for it so It doesn't like me; I have to type at a slower pace with it.

One of the things that I have typed about is my thoughts on the EM-33 plasma pistol (http://www.phasers.net/2150/em33.htm) and how plasma weapons might work in general. Personally, I find them to be more probably than handheld lasers or other energy weapons.

Quick diagram of the layout: Plasma Weapon concept (http://www.geocities.com/wandererofthewastes/PlasmaWeapon.jpg)

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The Em-33 Plasma Pistol fires a bolt of excited gases (plasma) inside of a magnetic envelope. The power for each bolt can be varied by a selector on the side of the pistol, this will be explained below.

There are two key components to the Em-33: The Powerpack and the Magnetic Envelope Generator (MEG). The Powerpack consists of a tank of pressurized gas and another section for a battery. The tank supplies the needed plasma and the powerpack supplies the needed power for exciting and then bottling the plasma for acceleration. The powerpack is contained within the butt of the pistol (like on a modern pistol). There is a power adjustment setting on the side of the receiver for changing the amount of plasma contained within each bolt, thus, changing the destructive power. The only factor limiting the range of the pistol is the amount of power devoted to the bottling and acceleration of the plasma. The more power that is applied the longer it takes for the bolt to decay and the gases to be dispersed. This leads to the conclusion that the larger the bolt, and the longer the range, the larger the power requirement by the weapon to meet the specified range.
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Just wanted to know your thoughts on this. Anyone have an idea as to what gas would be best? I am thinking about hydrogen because that would ignite when it hit something and came into contact with air, giving the pistol a little extra kick. -Colt

[tracer]

Quick diagram of the layout: Plasma Weapon concept (http://www.geocities.com/wandererofthewastes/PlasmaWeapon.jpg)

When I click on that link, the Geocities server responds, "This page is not available."

[Wingnut Ninja]

With pictures on Geocities you have to copy the URL and paste it into your browser's address bar. :roll:

As for the gas, I think you would want something that can be easily made into plasma, and one that would remain a plasma for a while. I remember reading a Discover article a while ago about some experimental cool plasma "flamethrower" that could be used to clean off normal material without melting it. I forget what type of gas they used in it, though. Anyway, it seems like the combustability of hydrogen would be fairly miniscule compared to the plasma itself.
Wait... isn't burning gas a plasma already?
Anyway, you could also probably have a setting that turns off/alters the magnetic compressor and just gives you a jet of plasma. Those are always useful. :D

[tracer]

With pictures on Geocities you have to copy the URL and paste it into your browser's address bar. :roll:
Ah, thanks! Now I can see it!

The picture has a little typewritten note in the upper-right corner that says "05/08/'03 Colt". Wow! I didn't know the makers of the Colt .45 were experimenting with plasma weapons all the way back in 1903! ;)

[Colt]

With pictures on Geocities you have to copy the URL and paste it into your browser's address bar. :roll:
Ah, thanks! Now I can see it!

The picture has a little typewritten note in the upper-right corner that says "05/08/'03 Colt". Wow! I didn't know the makers of the Colt .45 were experimenting with plasma weapons all the way back in 1903! ;)

Yeah, you never know what the Government is doing, especially when they have all of those other conspiracies. :wink:

Plasma (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?lastnode_id=120578&node_id=37791)

Do you think what I have proposed is probable? I will probably use it in a SF story eventually. -Colt

[pmcolt]

The screencaps of the 33 being shot seem to give the shots an orangish hue. Doesn't hydrogen appear orange when excited? I seem to remember having to do this in physics class with various gases when studying emission spectra. If it does, hydrogen might be a good choice.

I'm not sure about the power pack being within the butt of the pistol; I don't see anything on the prop that indicates that a clip could be loaded. Not that I think the prop designer went to that level of detail. I seem to remember the phase pistols are loaded by flipping open the top of the weapon and loading some sort of canister. If that really happened, rather than me imagining it, maybe this is a standard method of reloading firearms in the 22nd century?

[tracer]

Personally, I don't think plasma discharge guns are going to be terribly useful.

Once that packet of ionized gas leaves the muzzle, there isn't going to be any magnetic bubble keeping it in one place. The charge on the particles within the plasma will tend to make the plasma expand on its own. But worse, far worse, the stuff is going to have to plow through the air. I could imagine it running out of oomph very quickly. Such a weapon can't have an effective range of more than a few meters, unless you're willing to accelerate the plasma to ungodly high speeds, which would take so much energy that you'd be better off just firing a good old-fashioned bullet.

[daver]

Ball lightning is probably the appropriate model--some sort of self-stabilized plasmoid. Given the bizarre nature of reported ball lightning events, it's hard to see how anyone, no matter how eccentric, would think that it would make a reasonable hand weapon.

[Mark Skarr]

But worse, far worse, the stuff is going to have to plow through the air. I could imagine it running out of oomph very quickly. Such a weapon can't have an effective range of more than a few meters, unless you're willing to accelerate the plasma to ungodly high speeds, which would take so much energy that you'd be better off just firing a good old-fashioned bullet.

You could always use a low-powered laser to evacuate a "tube" of air so the plasma wouldn't hit it. That would give you a few microseconds to project a plasma bolt. But, unless it was traveling obscenely fast it still wouldn't get very far. Old-fashioned bullets are your friend. New-fangled MLA (magentic liner accelerator) rounds are even better.

Once you pull the pin out of Mr. Grenade, he is no longer your friend
--Sgt Servo

[pmcolt]

Maybe the expansion of the plasma is a feature, rather than a bug? At close range, the plasma bolt holds together and hits the target. As the bolt travels, it scatters and loses energy to the air, but has more of an area effect? It would explain Hoshi's comment that it's easier to hit the target with an EM-33... because at long range the plasma drifts and the pistol becomes a fancy 22nd century shotgun...

Come to think of it, have the PPG weapons used on Babylon 5 been discussed on this board? The prinicple seems to be similar.

[Mark Skarr]

But that would look like a bolt (from Star Wars) and not a beam. And, if you're actually shooting plasma, there should be a recoil. Maybe not a lot of recoil, but enough to throw successive shots off of the same point.