Its like a rocket. Fuel and oxygen are all self-contained.
When a sealed shell casing detonates, where is the oxygen supposed to come from? The oxygen is already in the nitrate.
A bullet would work exceptionally well in space. No wind resistance and no gravity to bend the trajectory.
Yah, ray guns are an option. The ones we have with currrent technology are to heavy to pick up, but in space...
Possibility
2006-03-30 00:56:31 UTC
Yes - the gunpowder in a firearm has all the ingredients for a burn - fuel and oxygen. The burning creates gas which expands and will eject the bullet - even in a vacuum.
Black powder is a mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate or, less frequently, sodium nitrate), sulphur and charcoal with a ratio (by weight) of approximately 15:3:2 respectively.
aguila
2016-12-13 13:27:14 UTC
it is merely an software of Newton's 0.33 regulation of action, the position a rigidity with have an equivalent rigidity contained in the different route. Assuming that the firearm discharges a bullet, the bullet will fireplace out of the weapon on an similar p.c. because it may in the international. the version may be the inability of air resistance, so the bullet will proceed on its similar route till acted upon by potential of an exterior rigidity. (it is Newton's first regulation.) counting on the ecosystem, the bullet ought to bypass right into a planet's environment, enter orbit, or be slingshot round yet another celestrial body. (by potential of ways, it is how probes released from Earth go back and forth when they have been propelled by potential of their rocket.) the different result may be that the weapon will be propelled contained in the other way with an similar momentum (that means that if the weapon is twenty situations the mass of the bullet, it is going to bypass backwards at one-twentieth the speed). compared to in the international, the position someone firing the weapon has the earnings of the floor to take up the momentum by friction, the weapon would haven't any more some thing preventing its action except acted upon by potential of an exterior rigidity. wish that helps.
SHAH
2006-03-30 03:03:51 UTC
we should leave the firearms back on earth...for a firearm to fire....oxygen is must....and in space thats the element which is missing...so we won't be firing with bullets...why do u think all the space movies have ray guns??? coz it will look very stupid if they were to use bullets.
Peace
extremelyvariedfan
2006-03-30 00:59:06 UTC
No. For the gun to fire, the gunpowder needs oxygen to combust and expand; that's what moves the shell out of the casing and gun. Since there's no oxygen in space, you're going to need a ray-gun!
ayatollah_of_rock_and_rollah00
2006-03-31 04:37:14 UTC
Yes it will, but by the time we're ready to start killing each other in space, we will have laser powered weapons. And we are already using it as the United States plans to introduce beam weapons in 2007 as crowd-control devices during riots
Manevitch
2006-03-31 14:08:02 UTC
Modern smokeless powder is made with either nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, or a combination of both. Both these compounds create oxygen as they burn, so a gun would definitely fire in space.
I haven't tested this, of course, but I have successfully fired a gun underwater just to prove it can be done.
Pseudo Obscure
2006-03-30 00:56:06 UTC
No, there's no oxygen to burn the gunpowder.
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