U.S. Navy Brings Railgun to Life
Posted on February 2, 2008
The U.S. Navy may have invented a railgun but gamers have been using railguns to destroy enemies for several years now. Wikipedia describes a railgun as type a gun that "converts electrical energy (rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant) into projectile kinetic energy." Wikipedia's entry also mentions that railguns were part of the plot in the 1996 film Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams. Railguns have been used in video games as early as the Quake II video game.
Even though it is not a novel idea the U.S. Navy's railgun is still very impressive and unlike the video game and movie railguns it is worth noting that the Navy's railgun is real. Gizmodo says it destroys everything it touches at 5,640 mph. Here's a video of the Navy's scary railgun in action.