Semi-OT: Do Gauss Rifles Kick?

[pmulcahy11b]

I call this thread "semi-OT" because in 30-50 years time or so, gauss rifles may be a standard infantry weapon...

For those who have never been able to play Traveller, a gauss rifle is a personal-sized electromagnetic railgun. My question is: would a gauss rifle kick? If so, would it kick less or more than a similar-caliber rifle of today? Would a recoil dampener be easier to make for a gauss rifle?

[headquarters]

all my technological insight on this comes from RPG lit.,so I amnot really sure and so on and so on..but!

I venture : no.

It accelerates its projectile through magnetic fields that only excert energy one way -and friction between weapon and projectile is zilch.

( I think)

[Adm.Lee]

I thought that was half of the point of making a gauss gun-- no recoil, and really high muzzle velocity?

[StainlessSteelCynic]

As far as I have been able to understand the technical information it's as Headquarters mentioned, they don't produce recoil because they don't have any explosive force to counteract.

[Legbreaker]

What about inertia?
Of course there would be recoil, it's just unlikely to be a big factor.

Just remember that "for every action" ie the projectile moving forward, "there is a equal and opposite reaction" ie recoil.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Actually I've made a big mistake, confusing railguns with gauss guns. The two work on different principles and I really need to find a site with a simpler explanation of the two
Gauss guns, also called coilguns do display a recoil comparable to modern firearms according to this site http://www.orbitalvector.com/Tactica...s/COILGUNS.htm

[kato13]

Due to conservation of momentum any weapon that fires a projective is going to have some recoil based on the mass of the projectile and how fast it leaves the barrel. If the (similar mass) projectiles leave the barrel at the same velocity the force generated backwards should be the same. However I am not sure that an equal force would result in a totally equal "recoil". I am assuming that a Gauss projectile would have more even acceleration when compared with a chemical projectile. This might reduce the high end force felt at any particular moment during the projectile's acceleration phase and there fore might reduce the apparent recoil.