What the hell is this...

[jordy]

Hoping someone can tell me what this is...

Got it off a image hosting website which just had the description "flaming bullet"

Obviously it's not a regular bullet but wtf is going on with the flaming tail there

Anyone know what it is?

[butiwanna]

Looking at the scale of the bolts and chain and that, surely it's a canon ball or something?

[AusC]

Background looks like a Naval ship?

[Hardcast]

It's not a Minnie ball coming out of a Black Powder rifle is it.?
They throw a fair flame.

[Herdsman]

It's a prototype 'rail gun' test firing by the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

[redrum]

It's a prototype 'rail gun' test firing by the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

So I can't get one in a sporting rifle?

[Herdsman]

Forgot the link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

[BBJ]

So I can't get one in a sporting rifle?

Not unless you want to get liquified when you fire the thing

[jordy]

Forgot the link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

Thanks mate.

Interesting reading

[Guliver]

For questions like this you need to use Google Search by Image, check it out it is extremely useful.

http://www.google.com.au/insidesearch/f ... image.html

[meek]

Sooo, we can get these on a cat A/B license, right?

[pajamatime]

is that curved line in front of the projectile a crinkle in the paper or part of the action?

[Aster]

I think you'll find that's the shockwave from the projectile.

P.S. That thing's moving at 2.4 kilometres per second if you didn't read the article...

[pajamatime]

I think you'll find that's the shockwave from the projectile.

P.S. That thing's moving at 2.4 kilometres per second if you didn't read the article...

yeah I thought it was probably something in relation to a shock wave but the thought did cross my mind that it might be a paper crinkle lol

it looks really cool...like a enormous amount of energy electrifying the air. getting all arty on yah ^_^

[Blackened]

In the right conditions you can see the same on supersonic jets.

There is an awesome video on YouTube where someone films a fighter jet going directly overhead at speed.

It looks like there is a giant glass arrow flying about a metre ahead of the jet as it moves.

[bunnybuster]

Rail guns use electro-magnetic effect not combustibles,so what is the flame/fuel source ? I think it is a small gas cylinder fired from a tube

using the gas as propellant.

Be safe,BB.

[Brute]

Rail guns use electro-magnetic effect not combustibles,so what is the flame/fuel source ? I think it is a small gas cylinder fired from a tube.

No fuel source, apparently it's this:

"Shock heating, the same effect which causes the "fire" trail on a spacecraft during re-entry. The object it moving so fast that the air does not have time to move out of the projectile's way, so it is compressed until it reaches a critical point where the energy stored by compression is enough to displace the air, and as it decompresses, heat and light are created by the expanding air. It basically is a string of explosive decompression fueled by velocity and air density alone."

[bunnybuster]

No fuel source, apparently it's this:

"Shock heating, the same effect which causes the "fire" trail on a spacecraft during re-entry. The object it moving so fast that the air does not have time to move out of the projectile's way, so it is compressed until it reaches a critical point where the energy stored by compression is enough to displace the air, and as it decompresses, heat and light are created by the expanding air. It basically is a string of explosive decompression fueled by velocity and air density alone."

Pharq do you really believe that mumbo-jumbo ? why don't I get the same effect from a 22-250 fired at night ? 40 gr pill 3900 fps.

Be Safe BB.

[Brute]

Are we really comparing a naval rail gun to your 22-250? Ok...

Why don't you get the same effect? Off the top of my head I'd say:

1) The rail-gun projectile is going 7,874 fps and
2) It's being propelled with some colossal electromagnetic charge which your 22-250 is not.

You said yourself you don't know what it is and you just made a guess. Now you're mocking me for being wrong?

I reckon neither of us know enough about this to have an intelligent debate on how this thing actually works, so it'll leave it what what I quoted earlier, "apparently" it's that.

If some scientist or experimental weapons engineer wants to correct me I'm all ears. If we're just going to be making s**t up and arguing with each other I'm out.

[Norton]

Rail guns use electro-magnetic effect not combustibles,so what is the flame/fuel source? I think it is a small gas cylinder fired from a tube using the gas as propellant.

Not sure what you're asking here... There is no fuel, you said yourself the source of propulsion is electromagnetism. What's the confusion?

I'm obviously not an expert on this thing but there is more than one video of more than one rail gun and you can see they just put a projectile in it... No gas cylinders.