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[Pimp-Boy 2000]

Ruski, electromagentic fields are quite capable of propelling things at ludicrously high speeds.  The force of its expulsion should carry the plasma onto a target in a split second, before the plasma "disperses" or whatever it is plasma does.

Railguns use the same "ultravelocity" principle -- in fact, the US Navy is almost done developing an electromagnetic "railgun" so powerful the projectile goes into low orbit before coming down to obliterate the target -- through sheer destructive velocity, no explosions.

[Ruski]

well, speed is one thing, but you have to think about resistance.

the railgun shoots a round projectile. (or bullet shaped, perhaps, but the current model is a giant marble made of zinc)

plasma will create a backwards force through the atmosphere, in effect a jet enginge burning away from the dirrection it's traveling. pushing it back the way it came. it would be like firing a backwards missle. you can throw it as fast as you can, but the jet is on the wrong side. if you throw it really hard, it'll still end up stopping short, because it's velosity will be reduced to 0 or -1 by the force exerted by it's burning O2...

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[ROOTless]

Also remember that a plasma is positively (electrically) charged, and so has internal coulomb repulsion.

Now, who want's to explain to the class why a weapon firing a small amount of antimatter at your opponent is a BAD idea?

[Ruski]

Ohh Ohhh!

*Raises Hand*

Matter (like your oponent) + Antimater (Plasma) = Possible nuclear reaction?

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[Pimp-Boy 2000]

Yeah, but one particle of antimatter would actually be an effective weapon.  As long as you stayed a good way away from your target.

Like... half a football field or so.

I read about that somewhere (it was a gaming book, but true research was done for the weapons section... maybe I can find it later), and it IS backed up by science, although I must, as always, defer to ROOTless' judgement on the issue, being no expert myself.

[ROOTless]

OK, it's a multiple answer question, in that no choices are provided, but several answers are correct.

Ruski, one word for you: Air.

Another (three) word(s) to consider: Hard Gamma Radiation.

Oh, and I forgot a little something for everyone's favorite pimp. How much does a "single anti particle" weigh?

[Pimp-Boy 2000]

The internet resources I just skimmed do not say; but, from what I gather, antimatter doesn't weigh significantly more than matter, at least, not on a microscopic scale with respect to human perception.

[Ruski]

well, i had already beat the 'air' horse long after it died, and he talked about clearing a 'path' with some magnet aray that would work inside an atmosphere.
*shrug*

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[ROOTless]

If the idea he was presenting is the one I've seen, it doesn't work.

(or rather, it requires a rather long and unwieldy magnetic array attachement at the front of the gun, preferbly more than half the distance to your target, and even so, it'll only work on ionized air. Which you can't garantee, unless you pump enough power into the magnetic fields to ionize the whole thing, but that's even more silly.

It's been suggested one might use a fairly high-powered laser to ionized the air in a specific area, then use a magnetic field generator to move the ionized air to create a "beam" of vacuum to propel the antimatter through.

The magnetic field would have to be rather interesting though.
And even so, there are 3 little words that make the whole effort a bit silly, unless you think really fast: Hard Gamma Radiation.

[Pimp-Boy 2000]

ROOTless, do you mean the plasma rifle idea, or the antimatter rifle idea? o.O

[Ruski]

well, perhaps if you were wearing 3' thick lead armor...

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[ROOTless]

Mostly the antimatter one. The gamma problem with the plasma one is way smaller. Though ofcourse the plasma weapon would probably require a similar magnetic array, I've never really looked into that.

NeoP, you have any interesting input to add?

[Ruski]

awww... radiation poisioning is fun!

-RuskiFace the Pirate

[ROOTless]

ER...let's see... no. Not at all, really.

[Ruski]

but you have the burning feeling... and the fingers falling off your hand feeling... and the cancer feeling... and all your hair falling out feeling... and the going blind feeling...

the drounding in your own blood as your lungs slowly fill up and your liver dies is also one of the hometown favorites!

-RuskiFace the Pirate