6 ms·
if you want low cost and portable, chemistry (i.e. gunpowder) always wins over gravity powered.
by xdertz 1mo ago
if you want low cost and portable, chemistry (i.e. gunpowder) always wins over gravity powered.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo agoThis is so obviously wrong. Show me a field-rechargeable gunpowder-based device for launching things, and I will show you someone who is about to run out of ammo on the side of a mountain they’ve just climbed after a single day of work. Honestly, what the hell. Where do you think gunpowder comes from, thin air? Oh, is gravity a subscription service in your country? Come on, try to at least be sensible about your response.
- anon_cow1111 1mo agoGuns are already ~20-50% efficient at turning chemical energy into kinetic energy. If you're not using a direct chemical reaction for energy, then you're using a human which is a lot less energy-dense than a backpack full of ammo. And yes, people who do avalanche control typically fire explosives out of a cannon or drop them from a helicopter. Getting a machine supply all the energy is the whole idea instead of climbing mountains yourself.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo agoDo you not understand the immense amount of energy and resources required to manufacture a single consumable cartridge? The point is to avoid that entirely and harvest gravity. Re-wilding teams already climb far and wide, and this would extend their reach without increasing their dependencies. Ammo is a dependency.
- anon_cow1111 1mo agoDo you not understand your argument is exploring a made-up scenario where we're no longer an industrialized civilization where these things are manufactured cheaply by the billions? And if you INSIST on making everything completely low-tech and renewable, build a potato gun and use high-proof alcohol as fuel. It'll weigh less and last longer than whatever rube-Goldberg trebuchet design you have.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo ago[flagged]
- anon_cow1111 1mo ago>This is false and unimaginative. A good one will weigh about 5 pounds and not have moving parts to break. Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself. You can at least do that much, right?
- MomsAVoxell 1mo agoA good one will have as few parts as possible, and be optimized for both portability and distances. >Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself I suppose I could just harvest gunpowder from the bullet trees that grow all over candy-land, too. Or, I could just have an ultra-optimized trebuchet in my backpack for throwing things with very little effort besides the energy (me) required to reload it, wind it up, and let ‘er rip ..
- anon_cow1111 1mo agoWell I'd recommend you get out there on a mountain with a trebuchet and try it, because you're certainly not convincing anyone in this thread so far.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo agoNobody in this thread has demonstrated anything but a distinct lack of imagination and a willingness to be as boring as fuck about a really cool idea, though, so I’m not bothered by convincing anyone. It’s like saying “why would you use a bow and arrow when you’ve got a 50 caliber machine gun industry right there, ready to help you blow things up”. I’d use a bow and arrow in the same context - so that I don’t have to have an entire industry dependency just to survive and/or do stuff in the wild. And before you change the context and say “yeah, why don’t use just use a bow and arrow to do your seed-bombing, huh hippy?”, that thought of course crossed my mind. Soon as I find a supersonic capable bow, that is.
- p1mrx 1mo agoGravity is not "harvested", it just stores the energy briefly. Someone or something has to lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo ago>lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. All harvesting requires some secondary-energy source. Gravity is a resource, it takes effort to convert it to a form that can be applied - just like wheat, photons, air guns, etc. > It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun. True, it’s not obvious yet, but it sure is fun following along and imagining the final, highly optimal version making its way through the process. I’d use it for some seed bombing hijinks, anyway. Green up the place, I would.
- mnw21cam 1mo agoOr if you have a limited supply of gunpowder but a way to make sufficient numbers of appropriately shaped projectiles, an air rifle would do the job and is much lighter and simpler than a trebuchet.
- knodi123 1mo agoIsn't it true that you can never generate a supersonic projectile with just air pressure?