magno bombs?

Organics, nanotech, and intrigue...discuss your thoughts on the new Palladium RPG here.

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

User avatar
abe
Hero
Posts: 1102
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2001 1:01 am
Location: auburn

magno bombs?

Unread post by abe »

how would you fine people create a explosive device that's also magnetic?
howdey folks!!!!!!!!
User avatar
taalismn
Priest
Posts: 48014
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between Heaven, Hell, and New England

Re: magno bombs?

Unread post by taalismn »

abe wrote:how would you fine people create a explosive device that's also magnetic?



Wouldn't. Suckers, gecko-grips, and adhesives work just as well and don't produce telltale magnetic fields that NEXUS 'bots might pick up on.
Besides, in WW2 the Germans learned to smear their metal-hulled Panzers with thick plastic-like paste that prevented magnetic satchel charges from sticking to their sides. If the Resistance started using magnetic mines(and somehow got around having to use metal for the effect), NEXUS could do likewise fairly easily and defeat them.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
------------
User avatar
flatline
Knight
Posts: 6153
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 7:05 pm
Location: Memphis, TN

Re: magno bombs?

Unread post by flatline »

hmm...organic magnets...let me think about that.

Adhesives are easier to come by in nature, so I agree with Taalismn that that is a more likely method of achieving the same or similar effect.

--flatline
I don't care about canon answers. I'm interested in good, well-reasoned answers and, perhaps, a short discussion of how that answer is supported or contradicted by canon.

If I don't provide a book and page number, then don't assume that I'm describing canon. I'll tell you if I'm describing canon.
Shark_Force
Palladin
Posts: 7128
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:11 pm

Re: magno bombs?

Unread post by Shark_Force »

if it was an absolute requirement, electromagnetic fields would be the way to go. you could easily make an electromagnet with gold. now, this is far from ideal. gold is heavy, not terribly common, and is expensive because it is used as a form of money. it is very malleable and as a result doesn't hold it's shape terribly well, meaning that if you used it in something you have to slam around all the time it wouldn't be great for that. perhaps most significantly for splicers, it isn't something you can produce organically with the greatest of ease. on the plus side, it is a very good conductor with very low resistance, though.

however, i think a much better choice would be to make an electromagnet out of graphite (which is basically carbon, which by definition organic beings will have plenty of access to). graphite is not particularly strong, and unlike gold is not very flexible... you'd probably need to have it wrapped in something else because it is fairly brittle (for the purposes of creating an electromagnet, that something else would need to be very thin, non-conductive, and durable), and if you want the resulting wire to be flexible, the graphite could be a powder (and of course the coating would also need to be flexible). with splicers tech, making a nanometers-thin flexible coating around graphite powder sounds fairly simple, to be honest.

the next step would be electricity production. this is actually quite easy for splicers. in fact, it is possible for splicers technology to generate enough electricity to create lightning bolts that would shatter reinforced concrete bunkers every few seconds. i think we can safely conclude that making an organic battery would be fairly easy for them (in truth, your body has organic batteries already, and mostly runs on electric impulses as i understand it, so while the quantity is probably not realistic, it is very reasonable to allow biological batteries).

having figured that out, you pretty much just have to coil the wire as tightly as possible. the more times you coil it around and the greater the current, the stronger the electromagnetic field will be. (note: high current generally speaking means your wire will get very hot. so make sure the wire coating is also heat resistant, and expect stronger magnets to be fairly visible in the infrared spectrum).

as to explosives, well, we all know splicers are perfectly capable of making those.

so, you could probably make a magnetic bomb pretty easily. though, as noted by others, it may not be particularly more effective than just using biological adhesives.
User avatar
abe
Hero
Posts: 1102
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2001 1:01 am
Location: auburn

Re: magno bombs?

Unread post by abe »

all good ideas!
all might work as a potential enhancement to a regular bio-bomb!
Post Reply

Return to “Splicers®”