Could some Sci-Fi weapons work IRL?

[KAL 9000]

Well, the Railgun is already being tested, and the physics are sound, so yes for it. What about things like laser cannons and death rays?

[SargeRho]

Several different laser weapons are already in development, some defensive and some offensive. Neutral Particle Beam cannons should be viable, too, but only in space or the upper atmosphere, so, several sci-fi weapons are certainly possible.

[p1t1o]

Like a lot of subjects on this site, good place to go for more info is the atomic rockets pages at "project rho" (just google "project rho"to find it).

And my contribution - star trek photon torpedos, being crude matter/antimatter devices would almost certainly work, though if designed in the way the technical manual states, would almost certainly "fizzle" - that is, produce a less-than-optimal yield - which might go some way to explain why the 100kg antimatter payload can hardly make a dent in anything (though there is a curious lack of widespread radiation poisoning as well).

Either way, splashing that much antimatter around is sure to destroy something...

[Scotius]

While browsing Project Rho, be sure to read the fragment about Casaba Howitzer - it is probably THE coolest and most terrifying weapon described there. And all reasearch done on them in RL is still so secret, they might very well already lie quietly in arsenals around USA, waiting for aliens to show with hostile intentions.

[KSK]

2 hours ago, p1t1o said:

Like a lot of subjects on this site, good place to go for more info is the atomic rockets pages at "project rho" (just google "project rho"to find it).

And my contribution - star trek photon torpedos, being crude matter/antimatter devices would almost certainly work, though if designed in the way the technical manual states, would almost certainly "fizzle" - that is, produce a less-than-optimal yield - which might go some way to explain why the 100kg antimatter payload can hardly make a dent in anything (though there is a curious lack of widespread radiation poisoning as well).

Either way, splashing that much antimatter around is sure to destroy something...

I know that nuclear weapons can fizzle if designed poorly but I'm genuinely curious as to how an antimatter weapon would ever fizzle. Keeping the thing from exploding at full yield if you look at it cross-eyed would be the main problem I would have thought!

Edit: More generally, the big problems with sci-fi weapons are size and energy requirements. Can we build a laser powered death ray? Probably - see SargeRho's post. Can we build a sidearm sized version of that death ray? Not a hope without some serious advances in battery technology and even then, probably not. Can we attach the whole thing to a shark? Yes - but seabass are easier to handle, even the ill tempered mutant ones.

Edited March 24, 2016 by KSK

[Shpaget]

There are also sonic weapons.

The tech behind them is quite cool.

[fredinno]

2 hours ago, Scotius said:

While browsing Project Rho, be sure to read the fragment about Casaba Howitzer - it is probably THE coolest and most terrifying weapon described there. And all reasearch done on them in RL is still so secret, they might very well already lie quietly in arsenals around USA, waiting for aliens to show with hostile intentions.

If the US had that kind of weapon, they would tell everyone, like with nuclear weaponry....

[cantab]

3 hours ago, KSK said:

I know that nuclear weapons can fizzle if designed poorly but I'm genuinely curious as to how an antimatter weapon would ever fizzle. Keeping the thing from exploding at full yield if you look at it cross-eyed would be the main problem I would have thought!

 

Same way - some of the material explodes and it blows the rest apart. It might make less practical difference though, since flying antimatter is itself pretty hazardous.

As for sci-fi weapons in general, well anything in sufficiently hard sci-fi is viable by definition.

Movie energy weapons are probably not plausible as depicted mainly because a real energy weapon isn't going to produce a slow-moving glowing blob. But if we consider that as a cinematic convention - just like how bullets get depicted as sparking on impact - then things look more plausible. The

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

comes to mind. It's probably the closest thing to a Star Trek Phaser that can be built. Like the phaser, the PEP can have selectable "stun" or "kill" power, and could be useful for heating things and making holes. The PEP though is a vehicle-mounted weapon, a long way from pistol-sized.

[Randazzo]

8 minutes ago, cantab said:

comes to mind. It's probably the closest thing to a Star Trek Phaser that can be built. Like the phaser, the PEP can have selectable "stun" or "kill" power, and could be useful for heating things and making holes. The PEP though is a vehicle-mounted weapon, a long way from pistol-sized.

Man-portable weapons would also need to be economical, or barring that, have some very specific advantage (such as the aforementioned stun setting).

A hole punched in your body by a projectile is not entirely different than a hole punched in your body by a fancy beam.

[Elrond Cupboard]

10 minutes ago, Randazzo said:

Man-portable weapons would also need to be economical, or barring that, have some very specific advantage (such as the aforementioned stun setting).

A hole punched in your body by a projectile is not entirely different than a hole punched in your body by a fancy beam.

Yup, if you need to deliver a significant amount of energy cheaply and efficiently, hot lead (or depleted uranium) travelling supersonically is a pretty good method.

[RainDreamer]

Well, most sci-fi weapons are based loosely on existing concepts, so they are likely to work. Whether they work exactly as depicted though is another thing.

I haven't seen a lot of sci-fi weapons that aren't guns, bombs, or a variant of melee weapons. They simply have new gimmicks for them.

 

What about weaponizing other things, like a teleporter? If you can teleported a mm slice of a ship from the main body just a little bit away, you just effectively cut that ship apart. That kind of battle needs no gun. It would just be ship blinking around in space, trying to slice each other while avoiding getting cut. Computers will make a massive number of prediction of enemy movement and their attacks, creating probability clouds of regions the enemy may appear for whatever fraction of nanosecond and where they might hit to act accordingly. It would be a FTL chess game.

[fredinno]

4 minutes ago, RainDreamer said:

Well, most sci-fi weapons are based loosely on existing concepts, so they are likely to work. Whether they work exactly as depicted though is another thing.

I haven't seen a lot of sci-fi weapons that aren't guns, bombs, or a variant of melee weapons. They simply have new gimmicks for them.

 

What about weaponizing other things, like a teleporter? If you can teleported a mm slice of a ship from the main body just a little bit away, you just effectively cut that ship apart. That kind of battle needs no gun. It would just be ship blinking around in space, trying to slice each other while avoiding getting cut. Computers will make a massive number of prediction of enemy movement and their attacks, creating probability clouds of regions the enemy may appear for whatever fraction of nanosecond and where they might hit to act accordingly. It would be a FTL chess game.

A teleporter is pretty much impossible anyways.

[RainDreamer]

1 minute ago, fredinno said:

A teleporter is pretty much impossible anyways.

Right, I am sleepy and went off topic. Forgot op is asking about possible stuff while I lamented the lack of variety in sci-fi weapons.

[HebaruSan]

Hat tip to @Temstar, whose post resulted in me reading this book:

Spoiler

Among other things, it has expendable cartridge based gamma ray lasers, which sounded pretty plausible, if not particularly sustainable. The aliens mainly used regular lasers and small asteroids.

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

Hat tip to @Temstar, whose post resulted in me reading this book:

  Hide contents

Among other things, it has expendable cartridge based gamma ray lasers, which sounded pretty plausible, if not particularly sustainable. The aliens mainly used regular lasers and small asteroids.

4 SPACE SHUTTLES?

[problemecium]

I'll say one thing: proton torpedoes (not photon torpedoes) actually work better in real life... because "proton torpedo" is a euphemism for "hydrogen bomb." With one of those on every X-wing the Rebels could have just spammed them in the general direction of the Death Star and taken it down xD

[HebaruSan]

3 hours ago, fredinno said:

4 SPACE SHUTTLES?

YES. No SRBs, though.

Michael Name	Pre-Michael Name
Shuttle 1	(Can't find it in my copy)
Shuttle 2	(Can't find it in my copy)
Shuttle 3	Challenger*
Shuttle 4	Atlantis

* Book was released in 1985, takes place ~1995

[Bill Phil]

5 hours ago, RainDreamer said:

Well, most sci-fi weapons are based loosely on existing concepts, so they are likely to work. Whether they work exactly as depicted though is another thing.

I haven't seen a lot of sci-fi weapons that aren't guns, bombs, or a variant of melee weapons. They simply have new gimmicks for them.

 

What about weaponizing other things, like a teleporter? If you can teleported a mm slice of a ship from the main body just a little bit away, you just effectively cut that ship apart. That kind of battle needs no gun. It would just be ship blinking around in space, trying to slice each other while avoiding getting cut. Computers will make a massive number of prediction of enemy movement and their attacks, creating probability clouds of regions the enemy may appear for whatever fraction of nanosecond and where they might hit to act accordingly. It would be a FTL chess game.

I think they had an actual gun in Star Trek that used a transporter attached to it to shoot someone discretely.

5 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

Hat tip to @Temstar, whose post resulted in me reading this book:

  Hide contents

Among other things, it has expendable cartridge based gamma ray lasers, which sounded pretty plausible, if not particularly sustainable. The aliens mainly used regular lasers and small asteroids.

Why not an Orion Battleship or two? Or three? Or four? Casaba howitzers and nuclear bombs can be quite formidable.

[HebaruSan]

1 minute ago, Bill Phil said:

Why not an Orion Battleship or two? Or three? Or four? Casaba howitzers and nuclear bombs can be quite formidable.

It is an Orion battleship. That's what drives the gamma ray lasers.

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

It is an Orion battleship. That's what drives the gamma ray lasers.

I mean the original design. The Michael is very different.

[Temstar]

I think it's because the aliens have a crap load of "small" digit ships that Michael had to fight through. With Casaba howitzers you need to have one nuke per target, and you can't reuse the drive system's nuke. Michael's bomb launcher use gamma ray lasers pumped by the bombs that propel the ship, each of those bomb and release many many laser modules so you can engage many more targets at once.

Aside from the orion drive they didn't forget regular nukes either. All that 16" naval gun and the little 5" gun equipped gunships fire tactical nuke shells.

[WestAir]

8 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

Hat tip to @Temstar, whose post resulted in me reading this book:

  Reveal hidden contents

Among other things, it has expendable cartridge based gamma ray lasers, which sounded pretty plausible, if not particularly sustainable. The aliens mainly used regular lasers and small asteroids.

Why is this a weapon and not a cool cylindrical space station?

[kerbiloid]

Tested by time. Works in any medium. Energy-independent. Environment-friendly. Always ready to use. Teach yourself to use in 10 minutes.

Spoiler

 

[kiwi1960]

15 hours ago, KAL 9000 said:

Well, the Railgun is already being tested, and the physics are sound, so yes for it. What about things like laser cannons and death rays?

In actual fact, the rail gun and the laser gun ar4e being deployed to US warships as we speak....

[RainDreamer]

Fun stuff, in 1984, the Soviet used to develop a laser pistol:

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/10/08/soviet-laser-pistol/

Nope, it doesn't burn a hole in anything, just enough to disable optics of satellites, which is what it is intended for.