Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

It sounds absolutely absurd but I'm thinking of how the military generates EMPs (explosive forcing a puck through inductive coil to generate a huge current which then generates the EMP), and maybe you actually could get some serious "deployable", very strong magnetic fields. Basically take the explosive EMP, and instead of directly trying to maximise EM induction in a pulse, you somehow try and stretch that pulse and apply it to a superconducting coil, generating a brief instant of strong magnetic pull.

The "pull weapons" thing is silly, it's a magnetic field so if you're that close the same weight in explosives should kill them, and with the forces it would need it's not going to be non-lethal.

I could maybe see this as an active defence system. Have a little turret, if you detect an incoming slug you fire your little grenade at the slug, it sets off a pulse that imparts substantial impulse to anything that's magnetic, diamagnetic, paramagnetic (lead, steel, uranium all included). Maybe it could send a high speed slug tumbling, or off course, not sure.

In general I think RTAPS is much more likely to have civilian uses than military ones, aside from banal military uses like "the generator works more efficiently because parts are superconductive now". Maybe railguns, but I don't think electric resistivity is the limiting factor there, more friction or plasma confinement.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: