An Interesting Question

[haywood]

Someone recently posed an interesting question to me.<br />Could you fire a gun in space?<br />I think what he was asking was...would the explosives inside the bullet actually fire in the vacuum of space?<br />I said no because of the lack of oxygen.<br />Thoughts?<br />

 

[haywood]

Thanks SG.<br />Sort of along the same lines as an SRB, right?<br />

 

[vogon13]

With out air resistance, velocity of bullet will not dissipate, assuming you have 'deadeye' aiming skills, lethality of ammo will be assured at amazing distances.<br /><br />You may find reation forces of weapon discharge disconcerting, please make sure the path the bullet travels, when extrapolated backwards, passes through your center of mass.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

IIRC, gunpowder is roughly 80% oxidizer.<br /><br />KNO3. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[haywood]

Thanks vogon...I know about air resistance and Newton's Law...just wondered if the thing would fire.<br /><br />

 

[steve82]

Not only can you shoot a gun, but you can shoot yourself down. If you're in orbit, you discharge your gun and the point at which you discharge becomes the node, or intersection of the bullet's orbital plane with yours. the bullet will then go around in its own orbit and will re-intersect with your orbit. <br /><br />Back in the Project Orion days (the project, not the former poster) they were looking at massive space battle stations in very high orbits that could shoot down anything launched toward them. One of the conceptual designs had what looked like 5-inch naval guns.

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">he oxygen is in the the gun powder. It does not need ambient oxygen. The gun will fire.</font>/i><br /><br />I believe this was covered in Heinlein's "Rocket Ship Galileo".</i>

 

[tap_sa]

<font color="yellow">"With out air resistance, velocity of bullet will not dissipate"</font><br /><br />...and the lack of ambient pressure means there's less resistance even when the bullet is still in the barrel, yielding even higher muzzle velocity/energy than usual. Lethal indeed! Btw imagine how effective a shotgun would be in spaceborn fight <img src="/images/icons/blush.gif" />

 

[spacefire]

kinda like the ship in "Footfall"? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[propforce]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Btw imagine how effective a shotgun would be in spaceborn fight <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />But you better hold onto something HEAVY when you fired that shotgun <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[contracommando]

The creator of the Babylon 5 television show even claimed that if you could stick your ear up to the gun and fire it, you could hear the gun fire because of the gasses coming from the shell. <br /><br />I’ve never really checked this out and wonder if it’s true. <br />

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

I'm sure you would have to hear something, because of the transmission of sound thru the gun. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Wanna see this site looking like the old SDC uplink?</p><p>Go here to see how: <strong>SDC Eye saver </strong>  </p> </div>