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In this world, the law enforcers and Military uses a new, multipurpose weapon which is basically a:

Packed into a single weapon. However, when designing the weapon, it's important to determine the parts that can be interchangeable in these two systems, so the question is:

What can be made into the shared parts of a free electron laser and a railgun, with nanotechnology?

  • Reversible, quick changes are allowed in the parts.

This question is tagged science-based because both of these systems exist in real life.

Mephistopheles
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    A coil gun typically shoots ferromagnetic projectiles, can you provide an example of one shooting plasma? Also a plasma is very different from a beam of electrons if I am not mistaken. – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 16:18
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    The battery pack? – Mormacil Apr 08 '17 at 16:20
  • @JoeKissling Well, it's close enough, but I still need the electrolaser to keep it alive. I recommend looking at the undulators. – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 16:24
  • In fact, I don't know if coilgun would even be practical for accelerating plasma. I think it would just end up compressing the plasma. – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 16:35
  • @JoeKissling Actually, it's not so impossible. – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 16:41
  • Rail Gun does not equal Coil Gun – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 17:02
  • @JoeKissling I know, but what's the core difference? – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 17:04
  • Principal of operation. Generally a coil gun needs a magnetic projectile to function because the coils generate an intense magnetic field that pulls (or pushes) the projectile along. Basically like magnets attracting or repelling one another. A rail gun uses a conductive projectile and the Lorenz force to accelerate a projectile. In a coil gun a plasma may just be compressed. See right hand rules – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 17:09
  • Are we talking hand-held or artillery piece here? – Philipp Apr 08 '17 at 17:13
  • @Philipp Doesn't really matters, this time. – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 17:14
  • @JoeKissling Does, the self-containing magnetic field of the toroid plasma matter? – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 17:17
  • Yes. In that video it's hardly self containing, it's shrinking the entire time, cooling and expanding. It's only self containing in the sense the plasma is caught in a rotating toroid of air. Expose it the magnetic field of a coil gun and it will collapse, or dissipate. – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 17:27
  • @JoeKissling Is that true to railguns as well? – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 17:29
  • @RedactedRedacted No. The plasma should be accelerated down the barrel like any conductive projectile. The think is a rail gun is not as complex as a free electron laser. It only needs a capacitor bank and a switch to discharge it. Maybe an inductor for good measure, but a much simpler system all together. – Joe Kissling Apr 08 '17 at 17:32
  • @JoeKissling What would happen if there were an ionized path of air, nearby, that the plasma can follow? – Mephistopheles Apr 08 '17 at 17:36
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    I read the Title line ok, but did not understand the body of the post. Two main parts? But the title indicates they are two different systems, not parts of a whole. – JDługosz Apr 08 '17 at 17:42

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If you have nanotechnology, you won’t have “parts” in that sense. As I elaborate in this older post, you’ll have a lump of utility goo. There may be specialized nanobots for some purposes like superconductors, but for the most part all the “goo” is a shared common component.

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JDługosz
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