Standup Comedy is hard. I know that... 
from experience!
Posted on 02/03/2008 12:12:36 PM PST by traumer
The US Navy's electromagnetic railgun project notched up a successful test yesterday. The radical new protoype weapon, operated by the the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, fired* shot a hypersonic aluminium slug at approximately Mach 7.5 to generate muzzle energy of 10.6 megajoules.
The Office of Naval Research are hoping that they can scale up their electric cannon to 64-megajoule levels, enabling them to fire heavier projectiles at targets two hundred miles away. Whether electrical pulses of the required magnitude can be generated practicably remains to be seen.
Even if they can be, at present railgun barrels only have a life of three or four shots owing to the terrific stresses placed on them - this problem will also need to be solved.
Still, if these and other technical niggles can be ironed out, the Dahlgren railgun's descendants may genuinely change the rules of the killing game. For now, though, all we have is a pleasing video. ®
*Presumably we can't say that, actually, any more than one could speak of "firing" an arrow from a bow. Blitzed, perhaps?
7,818,159 foot-pounds. That’ll leave a mark.
Standup Comedy is hard. I know that... from experience!
But thanks very much anyway!!!!
To be banned by a Federal Judge within the week and sold by our next president to Iran so they will give up their nuclear program./Sarc?
Going on a “bender” meant getting wall-eyed drunk to an earlier generation....anyway, you have a wonderful sense of humor, we need more of that on FR.
Yep, I know that being born in 1947... 
and raised in the hard drinking, hard partying, AIDS free 50s, 60s & 70s but I still get such a kick out of last century's Generation whatever's Futurama's Bender, that I adopted his nom de plume as cover for all my shady, shady shenanigans from my rowdy, rowdy past.
Now, I just hope... 
no Federal Judges or CID fellas lurk on FR!
Unless you killed someone, you’ve probably outlived the statute of limitations. Now you get to look forward, at 61 years of age, to MEDICARE; which will be going broke about when you hit 65. Speaking from experience, now those hard years on your body and bad habits of the past will come back to haunt you. Start NOW on preventive medicine, and laugh a lot, that’s good for you too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.