DARPA Working On Arthur C. Clarke Weapon Idea 453
holy_calamity writes "DARPA is working on a weapon which is similar to one first described by Arthur C. Clarke in his 1955 novel Earthlight — firing jets of molten metal using strong electromagnetic fields. The Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition (MAHEM) will function on a smaller scale than Clarke's fictional blaster. DARPA's write-up says it could be 'packaged into a missile, projectile or other platform and delivered close to target for final engagement and kill.' Clarke is also widely credited with suggesting geostationary communications satellites — what other ideas of his will come to pass?"
Re:The Mark V Computer (Score:3, Informative)
Link is here [lucis.net].
Posted as AC to prevent karma whoring.
Re:And This Concludes (Score:5, Informative)
Shaped charge + magnets. woohoo? (Score:1, Informative)
I don't understand how it would be useful as active armor - can they make them small and cheap enough to cover a warship?
Questionable.
Re:Bring the marshmallows (Score:5, Informative)
Have flamethrowers and napalm been ruled inhumane?
In any case, molten high velocity metal is already widely in use in anti-armor weapons. In the case of spalling, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spall [wikipedia.org], the molten metal is from your own vehicle not the weapon.
Re:What about the old fashined way (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bring the marshmallows (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about the old fashined way (Score:1, Informative)
"Current technology uses chemical explosive energy to form the jets and fragments. This is highly inefficient and requires precise machining of the metal liners from which the fragments and jets are formed. Generating multiple jets or fragments from a single explosive is difficult, and the timing of the multiple jets or fragments cannot be controlled. MAHEM offers the potential for higher efficiency, greater control, the ability to generate and accurately time multiple jets and fragments from a single charge..."
Not really. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bring the marshmallows (Score:5, Informative)
In a conventional HEAT, the charge is in the form of a narrow cone, and the liner is projected as a narrow jet of molten metal. It must explode at the correct standoff distance and the correct angle to be effective, but when it works it works quite well against even heavily armored vehicles.
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Informative)
stealth F117 Blackbird. (Score:3, Informative)
There was an F-117 Nighthawk, and an SR-71 Blackbird. Two very different aircraft.
Re:Automated memes (Score:2, Informative)
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:3, Informative)
I take it you've never actually tried that? It's really hard to hurt something with a sawed-off shotgun at much beyond 20 feet, and really hard to get that close to a rabbit (unless the rabbit is a pet). Try a .22 instead.
Re:(Armchair)Generals Always Prepare for the Last (Score:1, Informative)
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:3, Informative)
You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means...
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:4, Informative)
Your claim that science is a belief system is to fundamentally misunderstand science. Science is a method of inquiry into the natural world, the only one we know of, that can identify objective truths. It takes zero faith or belief or anything like that to accept the outcomes of the scientific method.
Finally, you are also making an argument from ignorance in your discussion of the big bang. The bottom line is we don't know how it all happened. We don't know what there was before. We don't even know IF there was a "before" at all. If time began then then most of your assertions disappear. Just because you don't understand something isn't a reason to say "god did it".
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps the concept will be similar to the uranium-tipped anti-tank weapons that impact the external armor. The pressure of the impact instantly vaporizes the metal, and splatters the interior occupants with the resulting vapor (turning them into ash).
(shrug) Who knows. I've seen the military come-up with some whacky ideas like an airplane carrier that, instead of airplanes, was filled with 1000 tomahawk missiles, but most of these ideas never come to fruition.
Re:what other ideas of his will come to pass? (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, no. Its "thou shall not commit murder". Some old translations used the word "kill", but few modern ones do. The hebrew word used in most of our originals is the word for murder. I'm not precisely certian how they defined "murder" at the time, but I'd bet it was at least as loose as "most rational people" feel about it. Probably a bit too loose. I wouldn't be suprised if killing a non-Jew, or perhaps even a badly misbehaving family member, was considered not to count.
Actually, its a bit of a misnomer to talk about "The 10 Commandments" anyway. The "The" is wrong, because they appear slightly differently in two different places in the bible. Also, different sects translate them differently. Even within the translations, the words are interpreted very differently by different groups.
The "10" is arguable too, as the Exodus version actually has 14 or 15 imperitive statements. Different sects divide these up into 10s differently, so there's no agreement on what numbers go with which statements either.
Many Christians also feel that Jesus essentially obsoleted them with his own two commandments.
All this of course means that anyone who wants to post "The 10 Commandments" somewhere is nessecarily taking sides in a religous dispute and promoting their version over the others.
The Wikipedia's entry [wikipedia.org] on this is pretty good, but for all its length it doesn't begin to cover everything.