Stargate SG1 + Gun Fans?

[Distracted]

I'm not talking explosives. Explosives can involve chemical reactions that produce heat when electrical current passes through. I can see that working in vacuum. Light bulbs work that way.

I'm talking bullets. Guns. Revolvers. Pistols. Rifles. Why would they work in vacuum? Gunpowder has to burn. Where does the oxygen come from for ignition? I've always been under the impression that fire is impossible without oxygen.

[WarpGirl]

Ok so basically two people out in space itself firing guns... Hmm. Not sure.

[Distracted]

Not in space. Inside a ship that's been breached and has lost atmosphere. The crew manage to get into suits so they're still alive. One of them has an antique gun collection. So... could they use them?

[WarpGirl]

Ok, I admit I know nothing! I'm clueless.

[Cogito]

I'm not talking explosives. Explosives can involve chemical reactions that produce heat when electrical current passes through. I can see that working in vacuum. Light bulbs work that way.

I'm talking bullets. Guns. Revolvers. Pistols. Rifles. Why would they work in vacuum? Gunpowder has to burn. Where does the oxygen come from for ignition? I've always been under the impression that fire is impossible without oxygen.

I think you're confusing the issue. Most explosives don't inherently involve electricity. It is just convenient to use an electrical detonator to ignite them, but there are other types of detonator that don't use electricity. You can set explosives off with anything that produces enough heat and pressure to start the reaction.

The explosive charge that fires a bullet from a gun isn't fundamentally different to any other explosive. It's a mixture of chemicals which can ignite and explode if there is enough heat and pressure. It doesn't rely on any external source of oxygen. If you take any conventional handgun up into space, have it free floating outside the ship and away from any atmosphere and pull the trigger, it will work just the same as it would down here.

The only explosives that do rely on oxygen from the atmosphere are fuel/air explosives which work by dispersing a cloud of fuel into the atmosphere and then lighting it. This is a very rare type of explosive though, not the sort used to propel shuttles into space or fire bullets from guns.

[WarpGirl]

Cogito you're scaring me you know too much about explosions!

[Cogito]

I'm scaring you? I'm not the one with scary Sith powers and a penchant for edged weapons!

[Distracted]

Thanks, Cogito. You've really helped me with the scene I'm writing.

[WarpGirl]

I'm scaring you? I'm not the one with scary Sith powers and a penchant for edged weapons!

I told you I'm not a Sith! See I thought that it was friction that caused the heat to ignite the gunpowder and fire the gun. And that wouldn't depend of oxygen but I know so little about guns I was scared to say it.

Come to think of it, I've never seen a gun fired in that situation on any sci-fi, even SG-1.

[Distracted]

Originality is good.

[WarpGirl]

<Channeling Teal'c> INDEED!

[Cogito]

Indeed.

[WarpGirl]

Yes it is creepy sometimes. But Teal'c puts his own spin on it.

[WarpGirl]

Okay I think I've watched at least 50 episodes in the last 5 days. (Yeah I have no life) And on the gun stuff they're still using that "tommy-like" gun with the replicators as of New Order pt2, but I don't think it is a shot gun because Teal'c used an automatic shotgun in the same episode. It wasn't the same.

As for the Sam/Jack thing... This is what Rigil said a while ago,

Those regs are there for a reason and I can think of at least one SG1 episode where the entire mission should have failed because Jack lost his head and wouldn't leave Sam behind as the mission parameters required (but it didn't because they had Script Immunity.)

HE'S RIGHT! I admit that totally. However, thus far I have seen Jack shoot or kill all of SG-1 multiple times, sometimes in one season. So given that he can do that, I'd say he isn't compromised. He's also risked missions for Teal'c and Daniel, and even that horrible Jonas Quinn. So that said in the interest of fiction, 15 years is rediculous.

Sam has shot/killed Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c as well so I'm thinking she's not compromized either. And seriously, I adore the DeLuise brothers all of them but Pete Shanahan is painful! If Sam had to contemplate marrying anyone why did they have to kill all of the wonderful canidates: Martuf/Lantash, Orlin, and that Tolan guy. Hey the amabassador creep was better than the cop!

[Elessar]

Okay I think I've watched at least 50 episodes in the last 5 days. (Yeah I have no life) And on the gun stuff they're still using that "tommy-like" gun with the replicators as of New Order pt2, but I don't think it is a shot gun because Teal'c used an automatic shotgun in the same episode. It wasn't the same.

As for the Sam/Jack thing... This is what Rigil said a while ago,

Those regs are there for a reason and I can think of at least one SG1 episode where the entire mission should have failed because Jack lost his head and wouldn't leave Sam behind as the mission parameters required (but it didn't because they had Script Immunity.)

HE'S RIGHT! I admit that totally. However, thus far I have seen Jack shoot or kill all of SG-1 multiple times, sometimes in one season. So given that he can do that, I'd say he isn't compromised. He's also risked missions for Teal'c and Daniel, and even that horrible Jonas Quinn. So that said in the interest of fiction, 15 years is rediculous.

Sam has shot/killed Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c as well so I'm thinking she's not compromized either. And seriously, I adore the DeLuise brothers all of them but Pete Shanahan is painful! If Sam had to contemplate marrying anyone why did they have to kill all of the wonderful canidates: Martuf/Lantash, Orlin, and that Tolan guy. Hey the amabassador creep was better than the cop!

I'd say he was compromised - but that's ok, he knew it. That was the point. His feelings for Carter were a problem because of their superior/subordinate relationship, and he knew it.

I'm not talking explosives. Explosives can involve chemical reactions that produce heat when electrical current passes through. I can see that working in vacuum. Light bulbs work that way.

I'm talking bullets. Guns. Revolvers. Pistols. Rifles. Why would they work in vacuum? Gunpowder has to burn. Where does the oxygen come from for ignition? I've always been under the impression that fire is impossible without oxygen.

You're right that gunpowder has to burn, but it doesn't need oxygen exactly, it needs an oxidizer or some sort. Bi-propellants for rocket engines are a good example - the fuel and oxidizer are kept separate, but they don't usually use raw oxygen, or they do and it's liquid oxygen.

But D think about how a round is put together - the casing cavity where the powder sits beneath the projectile is probably a vaccuum. Other than damage to the primer, you can submerse a round in water and then shoot it and water doesn't get into the casing to mix with the powder. So, when a bullet goes off, the oxidizer is either with the gunpowder or it's the oxygen that's in the casing when the projectile's crimped onto the casing. That being said, I know that powder continues to burn to some degree as the projectile travels down the barrel. In atmosphere, that powder is exposed to air as it travels down the barrel, so there's an oxidizer present. So in space, you may have to design cartridges a certain way, or barrels of a certain way, so that there's oxidizer present. You may need to use very fast burning powders or some sort of completely new bipropellant powder that incorporates an oxidizer of its own. But my gut tells me if you took a normal gun with normal rounds into space, you could fire it, you just wouldn't see the same muzzle velocity you would on earth.