{"id":178919,"date":"2018-07-19T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/07\/19\/wake-me-up-when-you-have-a-light-saber\/"},"modified":"2018-07-19T18:26:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T23:26:00","slug":"wake-me-up-when-you-have-a-light-saber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/07\/19\/wake-me-up-when-you-have-a-light-saber\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Me up When You Have a Light Saber"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 330px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/1RkWtp9.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" bordercolor=\"white\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/1RkWtp9.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><br \/><i>No cooling ports either<\/i><\/div>\n<p>China is now claiming that they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy-defence\/article\/2153310\/china-brings-star-wars-life-laser-ak-47-could-set-fire\">have developed a high power laser weapon with the weight of an assault rifle<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle is classified as being \u201cnon-lethal\u201d but produces an energy beam that cannot be seen by the naked eye but can pass through windows and cause the \u201cinstant carbonisation\u201d of human skin and tissues.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Ten years ago its capabilities would have been the preserve of sci-fi films, but one laser weapons scientist said the new device is able to \u201cburn through clothes in a split second \u2026 If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire\u201d.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThe pain will be beyond endurance,\u201d according to the researcher who had took part in the development and field testing of a prototype at the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi province.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">The 15mm calibre weapon weighs three kilos (6.6lb), about the same as an AK-47, and has a range of 800 metres, or half a mile, and could be mounted on cars, boats and planes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p>Particularly this bit:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The rifles will be powered by a rechargeable lithium battery pack similar to those found in smartphones. It can fire more than 1,000 \u201cshots\u201d, each lasting no more than two seconds.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some data points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The power level of the laser has to be on the order of least a kilowatt, and probably more than 10.<\/li>\n<li>Energy from the laser ignoring any losses would therefore be at least 2,000,000 joules, and probably 10 times that.<\/li>\n<li>The maximum power density of a LiIon battery is currently less than 1 MJ\/kg, so the battery pack would need to weigh, again <b><span style=\"font-size: 100%; font-variant: small-caps;\">Before Any Losses<\/span><\/b> of at least 2 kilograms, and for a more realistic power level, we would likely be talking 10 times this.&nbsp; Also note that maximum power and maximum energy in a battery are more or less inversely related, so you at well under the 1 MJ\/kg figure.<\/li>\n<li>The current limits on laser efficiency, diode lasers, less than 70%.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>The efficiency of the battery on discharge is likely to be less than 90%, but lets call it 95%.<\/li>\n<li>The losses incurred will mean that you will need an active cooling system, which will consume a significant amount of power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, if we run the numbers, the minimum power from the battery is on the order of 2 MJ\/70%\/95%= 3MJ, which means that the battery pack comprises the complete weight of the weapon.<\/p>\n<p>And also note the cooling requirements here, which will, at best, make a leaf blower quiet in comparison.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m calling bullsh%$.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No cooling ports either China is now claiming that they have developed a high power laser weapon with the weight of an assault rifle: The ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle is classified as being \u201cnon-lethal\u201d but produces an energy beam that cannot be seen by the naked eye but can pass through windows and cause the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[487,588,382,453],"class_list":["post-178919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-china","tag-fail","tag-technology","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}