Lightning Guns by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Lightning Guns

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 14:38
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012 2:12 PM

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Hello,

I have recently been reading about electrolasers, which seem poised to become the next-generation stunning device. The weapon uses a laser to ionize a corridor in the atmosphere, and then sends an electric current over the corridor to the target.

I wondered two things about such a device.

1) Could it, at sufficient power, cause damage to surfaces? I remember as a youth that electric sparks could melt or vaporize the lead-ends of a conductive wire.

2) Would it be useable at all in a vacuum? I know there would be no ionized corridor in a vacuum, but I wonder if there needs to be? Can you throw lighning bolts in outer-space without a conduit? There would seem to be nothing to direct such a discharge, but nothing to knock it off-course either.

--Anthony

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012 2:38 PM

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Quote:
1) Could it, at sufficient power, cause damage to surfaces? I remember as a youth that electric sparks could melt or vaporize the lead-ends of a conductive wire.

Depends on the resistance of the corridor and the voltage. Any amount of electrical current passing through the body could cause internal burns or death though.

Quote:
Can you throw lighning bolts in outer-space without a conduit? There would seem to be nothing to direct such a discharge, but nothing to knock it off-course either.

Don't think so. There are some high altitude sprites that get sent off, but I think they're still operating in air. To carry a charge you kind of have to have electrons and a voltage difference in an electric field. Or at least enough concentration of ions that you can generate a field, which I don't think you could do outside the Van Allen Belt or with the solar wind.

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