My question is can we launch satellites this way? Imagine the savings there!

1:02 that amount of money and they can't hire a p.r. that doesn't look like a nutcase?

#1. Yes...provided the payload was protected from the acceleration which would be bloody AWESOME.

With all the $ spent on research & development they could have fed the homeless for 20 years.

Oh wait, It's the U.S.super power... wonder twins .. activate

#1. Yes...provided the payload was protected from the acceleration which would be bloody AWESOME, and according to the guy in the video it would reach that speed (around 5,328 MPH ) in 10 MILLISECONDS. I just wonder what the 'G' force would be on that?
I THINK (I'm probably wrong by orders of magnitude)...that it would be around 44 G's, anybody? Sorry...I hit the return button by accident on my earlier post :-(

Such a usefull technology....

#5
Probably more like 250000 G

ya just know that was the kid in highschool that was forced to lick the flag pole in winter

#2 You beat me to it. That guy's expression says all there is to know about the military and their excitement over boys' toys designed to kill.
The best we can hope for is that, like the laser, Teflon, etc. some proper use will be found for it, so the money won't be entirely wasted.
I'm a believer in "knowledge is power" and all sensible science may well find its use one day (and I say "sensible" deliberately to exclude obvious crap like homeopathy).

v= Mach 7 = 2382 m/s
t= 10 ms = 0.01 s
a= v/t = 238200m/s^2
= 24282 g (g=9.81m/s^2)

=

#9 a man once said:
there are three types of intelligence, human intelligence, animal intelligence and military intelligence

God I love the smell of electromagnetism in the morning.

#10...Bloody hell, can you translate that into English?...Photography I'm good at...but maths :-/

#14 all we have to keep in mind is

@2 he is the real tony stark

Yes but.... how long do the batteries last?

sure #14 :
Velocity equals mach 7 equals twothousandthreehundredeightytwo meters per second.
Acceleration-time equals ten milliseconds equals zero point zero one seconds.
Acceleration equals velocity divided by acceleration-time equals twohundredthirtyeightthousandtwohundred meters per second squared equals twentyfourthousandtwohundredeightytwo times earth's gravitational acceleration (with earth's gravitational acceleration being nine point eight one meters per second squared)

Equals severely fucked up payload.

Glad i could clear that up for you!

#17 The batteries last a full 12 hours between charges. The problem is the batteries are the size of a second ship which needs to be towed behind the gun ship, slowing the whole thing down. Also the gun can only be used for projects close to land because the charger is the size of a multi-storey car park.

#6, if you don't count weapons as being a waste of human effort, a railgun is cheaper per shot than a traditional cannon. A big deal for a normal country, but for a military show-off like the US, the price has never been an issue. Tax payers have deep pockets

#17 (and close buddy #19 ) Rail guns will mostly be mounted on nuclear powered ships which have unlimited electrical generating power and the weapon can be fired repeatedly as fast as it can be reloaded.

#21. I prefer #19's more colourful and imaginative explanation. Besides, I just can't take you and your greatly diminished manhood seriously after your last hastily-removed avatar. LOL.

I guess the reporter (or whatever) in this video does not know the difference between a Rail Gun and a Ray Gun.

#22 Silly troll, I just went with a cooler picture with even more firepower.

#24. Yes, yes, of course you did....

#2 Precisely, that guy is NUTS.