Re:Centrifugal Machine Guns
by 6nf on Sunday December 08, 2019 @10:53PM
(#21740285)
Modern bullets are not spheres because spherical projectiles don't want to fly straight, especially when you impart a bunch of spin on them first.
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Re:Centrifugal Machine Guns
by notduncansmith on Sunday December 08, 2019 @11:51PM
(#21740472)
It's true that the spin from a centrifugal gun is unlikely to make bullets fly straight, although ironically "impart a bunch of spin on them" is also one of the foremost techniques for making bullets fly straight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling
> In firearms, rifling refers to the helical groovings that are machined into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel, for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting. This spin serves to gyroscopically stabilize the projectile by conservation of angular momentum, improving its aerodynamic stability and accuracy over smoothbore designs.
Relating to spinning spherical projectiles, some airsoft guns impart backspin on the spherical plastic pellets they fire to flatten their trajectory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-up_(airsoft)
It's called the Magnus effect [1]. I learned about it from my wife, who learned about it when she did a tennis instructor course.
I imagine such a weapon would be more of a suppressing fire tool than something intended to shoot accurately.
You still need some accuracy for supressing fire. Especially in the vertical direction. You might wanna keep a horizontal line saturated with lead, but vertical dispersion of targets is usually much lower.