Phase shields, need a number.
- Thread starter Newcommanderondablock
- Start date
Getting a magnetic field to change fast is easy. We've been doing it for decades. Its called a radio transmitter. Moving current causes a magnetic field to form. Therefore you make the current alternate and change the freq of change and your mag. field changes accordingly.
But this does not nor will it ever produce a shield. You'd probably want a non alternating current for some sort of magnetic shield but that still isn't going to work well. Simply use something with very weak magnetic properties and you're through the shield.
But this does not nor will it ever produce a shield. You'd probably want a non alternating current for some sort of magnetic shield but that still isn't going to work well. Simply use something with very weak magnetic properties and you're through the shield.
I thought the WC shields were electromagnetic, not just simply magnetic. Electromagnetism is naturally alternating, which helps with the refreshing, and phasing, and the electric side can handle just about anything teh magnetic side can't, so the shield could handle low magnetic items. EM is also radiation, which can take solid weapons such as missles out.
Well you change a magnetic field and you get an electric field which induces a magnetic field etc ... otherwise known as light. The two aren't seperable.
And the shields can't be EM anyway. It shouldn't be hard to engineer a projectile that is not affected by EM. Not to mention that if it were powerful enough to do damage, consider what might happen to the neighbouring ships. I'd imagine an EM field would travel quite far without significant attenuation.
And the shields can't be EM anyway. It shouldn't be hard to engineer a projectile that is not affected by EM. Not to mention that if it were powerful enough to do damage, consider what might happen to the neighbouring ships. I'd imagine an EM field would travel quite far without significant attenuation.
A transmitter (no matter what polarization the antenna is - be it planar or circular) works on EM properties not just magnetic properties alone (you may have meant this but I'll just clarify). I generally don't think as the current as alternating to make an EM wave propagate, I think in terms of the phase sliding from 180 to -180, but thinking in terms of the current alternating is a different idea to get to the same means.
No matter how much you change the current, however, you do not get a frequency change, at least in my experience. To get a frequency change, the dimensions of the transmitting antenna have to change or the frequency of the VCO (voltage controlled oscillator), which steps up a baseband frequency to the transmitting frequency, has to change. If I'm incorrect I'm sure I'll be called down on it, and I'll learn something new (happens everyday
).You change one to affect the other, it doesn't work like a bouncing effect. You change the magnetic field and the E-field changes. You change the E-filed the B-field changes. No other changes take place until you alter one of the fields again. In the case of an EM wave, the electric and magnetc fields are seperated by a scaling factor (the medium it is travelling in affects this) and a -j (imaginary term), this means that the E and B fields are perpendicular and out of phase woth respect to each other. Change one, by phase, amplitude what have you, and the other will follow suit. stationary fields are the same way.
I don't know I'll have to disagree with you on this. Magnetic field (stationary) lines of magnitude drop off with range drastically (everyones seen the picture in a high school science book of the metal filaments surrounding a magnet, thereby exposing its magnetic feild to be a oval entity that loops back on itself - and also thereby making analytical methods using Maxwell's equations so very, very nice - curl of the B fields being 0 and all
). This could be implemented to stop metallic projectiles of any kind ( we can already alter the path of bullets using magnetic fields, hopefully we get better at it in a few centuries.) Unlike a magnetic feild the E-field does radiate like steampunk says, but this probably doesn't have to be that powerful in a constantly radiating sense. No amount of energy could stop a discharge of 10's of megawatts that can be used in a laser. What you can do though, is transmit an EM wave of about the same amplitude and frequency, but perfectly out of phase from an incoming EM weapon. This would cancel out the energy before it got to the ships hull. THis would allow a capship to havge a EM field emitter that bascially targetted incoming ships and used "squirts" of EM radiation (instead of a constant field) to "kill" incoming EM weapons fire.Hey, it may be far fetched but we are taking about science fiction
Anyway this is an idea I pulled from the top of my head (those usually get me in alot of trouble), lets shoot some holes in it.
C-ya
What about bullets made out of nonconducting materials?
An aside: All of the gun types in WC use either solid projectiles (Stormfire, Mass Driver), charged particles (Plasma, Ion, Particle, Meson, Tachyon), or photons (Laser, Photon).
One problem: How do you know the frequency of the incoming beam? The beam would have to strike the ship and be analyzed before it could be neutralized since it is likely that the attacker will switch frequencies after every shot, unless they are using lasers that can only generate one frequency, which is stupid given that they know that the defender will be trying to neutralize the beam.
EM shields would still work with solid weapons. The EM shield is set to have frequecies close to the gamma ray range. This radiation would cause teh incoming weapons, which are variants of nuclear material and/or antimatter, to either decay rapidly or explode rendering the weapon mute. The photoms of the em fields would also deflect the ion and particles of the more energy-like shots. (Remeber EM is both a field of energy and a field of particles. ) Shots that go through offer more punch than the field can deflect.
) Shots that go through offer more punch than the field can deflect.You can't use an EM field that's 180 out of phase with an incomming laser. Consider the condition for total reflection: at the mirror surface the light undergoes a 180 phase change before being sent back. And remember theres still light of the original phase going towards the mirror. So what happens when you get 2 lasers 180 out with eash other? Reflects back to the source. The shields would damage the ship and the incoming laser would reflect and hit what ever.
Yes, Viper is correct about everything save his last paragraph. I didn't want to bring too much elec details into this. Elec details always make things harder to understand imho.
I disagree with Meson. If the EM field is that strong and its propogating, again, what about the other ships? What if we use very stable materials that don't decay? And even if we didn't getting stuff to decay doesn't get rid of it. We'll just have a projectile made of a different material hitting us. And IIRC photons don't deflect other photons. They'll mix and pass through each other. For example you point a torch at your computer screen you don't suddenly loose the picture where your torch is pointed.
Yes, Viper is correct about everything save his last paragraph. I didn't want to bring too much elec details into this. Elec details always make things harder to understand imho.
I disagree with Meson. If the EM field is that strong and its propogating, again, what about the other ships? What if we use very stable materials that don't decay? And even if we didn't getting stuff to decay doesn't get rid of it. We'll just have a projectile made of a different material hitting us. And IIRC photons don't deflect other photons. They'll mix and pass through each other. For example you point a torch at your computer screen you don't suddenly loose the picture where your torch is pointed.
IIRC, light (and anything to do with it like a laser) is one of the few things that do exhibit the particle/wave duality. I don't think that any EM wave exhibits the duality characteristics.Originally posted by Meson
The photoms of the em fields would also deflect the ion and particles of the more energy-like shots. (Remeber EM is both a field of energy and a field of particles.
That is one problem with my proposal, but a laser's operating frequency is a function of the emitting crystal and the gas that is used (argon, helium, etc). I don't think either of these would change between shots. A fleet like Confed would probably stndardize their weapons as much as possible to facilitate maintainance work. Therefore a capship would have a general idea about what freq the laser is operating at so it could send out a broadband, low power (you can't have both broadband and high power
) pulse that would disperse the lasers energy enough to take the 1st hit and then they would have the exact frequency of the fighter's weapons, making the next shot even less effective (form there on using a narrow band, high power pulse). Yes but that is when it hits a reflective surface. In our case, since a laser is just a tightly focused, high frequency EM wave (I'll ignore the photons for right now since I don't have an explaination for them
) what you would have is 2 incident waves passing through each other. if these waves are perfectly out of phase they will cancel each other out (assuming you have the same amplitude as the fired laser, which you wouldn't, but you would bring down the power considerably though). You have no reflective surface to act as a mirror, just radiation.C-ya
All EM waves are made up of photons. Radio, microwave, infrared, light, ultraviolet, X-Ray, Gamma Ray, the only difference between them is the frequency of the wave. All EM waves are similar in the same sense that all sound waves are similar.
That is one problem with my proposal, but a laser's operating frequency is a function of the emitting crystal and the gas that is used (argon, helium, etc). I don't think either of these would change between shots. A fleet like Confed would probably stndardize their weapons as much as possible to facilitate maintainance work. Therefore a capship would have a general idea about what freq the laser is operating at so it could send out a broadband, low power (you can't have both broadband and high power
Due to the nature of arms races, it would be highly desirable for Confed to have weapons capable of adapting to as wide a range of frequencies as possible. Assuming that the defender knows that a pulse of the same frequency as the incoming laser beam can be used to disperse the beam, it is naturally to the attacker's advantage to do anything possible to ensure that the defender can not do so. Thus the attacker would never want the defender to be able to predict the frequency of the attacker's beam weapons.
I'm going to have to research this, I don't believe that radio waves have anything to do with photons.
Well, we have chaff and flares to spook missiles, so does the other side. just becasue we have something that makes a weapon less effective doesn't mean that they are going to stop using them.
C-ya
The photon is the unit of electromagnetic energy. All waves in the electromagnetic spectrum are made of/characterized as photons.
True, but the fact that your enemy can defeat your weapons means that you will look for any way possible to overcome his counter-measures. For example, the invention of radar lead to the development of "stealth" aircraft that are nearly invisible to existing radar.
Originally posted by Viper61
Yes but that is when it hits a reflective surface. In our case, since a laser is just a tightly focused, high frequency EM wave (I'll ignore the photons for right now since I don't have an explaination for them
Nope. You don't need a mirror. 2 EM waves, 180 out of phase, aligned so that total destructive interference occurs. Energy cannot be destroyed. Where does it go? Reflects back to the source. So EM cannot be used. You'd kill yourself.
Check out the config for a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Uses lasers and interference to measure things. If you check the laser source both will have:
laser, polarising filter, crystal that has Maxwell effect.
The name is probably wrong but the crystal will change polarization of laser REGARDLESS of direction it enters crystal. So laser can pass one way unaffected. But if interference occurs laser will not go back into laser.
BTW, EVERYTHING has wave-particle duality. We just can't observe it unless we deal with really small things.