How would the plasma rifle in Doom work?

These 3 criteria must be met for this to be plausable.

1: it must generate either a ball of plasma, or a ball of fire that lasts for at least 10 meters before dissipating. Hydrogen will be optimal for this.

2: the plasma must burn a target at a range of at least 5 meters or more.

3: it must generate and propel balls of burning plasma or fire at 4 rounds per second or more.

P.S. Get vessel-containing-energy-based-fourth-dimensional-being-known-as-john-carmack on here if possible. Also, if the criteria can't be met, that's okay. I will take anything i can get.

Do you mean how would the plasma gun from Doom would work in real life? 

None of those criteria can be met, a plasma orb would dissipate as soon as it exits the muzzle of the plasma rifle.

okay, so ionized gas is out of the equation. what if it shot a glass capsule with super hot plasma inside that shatters and can burn things? could the plasma last long enough to burn something for at least a fraction of a second before dissipating, after the capsule breaks?

Not. A plasma gun in real life would be an extremely dangerous short-range anti-everything "flamethrower".

And when I say short-range I mean, only shoot it stationary or while backpedalling. Shooting and running forward will probably melt the gun and you.

@memes4lyfe It could work if the capsule was made out of an impossible material that can endure ridiculously high temperatures, blue plasma is several times hotter than the sun's surface.

The plasma is stored in compressed form in the plasma cells. When you pull the trigger, all you're doing is opening a valve and the plasma shoots out from all the pressure inside the cell. There's no electricity or fancy technology. You know how when you're blowing bubbles and you get a stream of small bubbles instead of one big one? That's what's happening with the plasma gun.

My favorite rendition of how it works and kills is currently in doom eternal where it just cooks and frys the demons till they just pop and explode. Basically microwaving them like demonic gore filled peeps. 

2 hours ago, Solmyr said:

Do you mean how would the plasma gun from Doom would work in real life?

I was thinking exactly the same thing as the Plasma Rifle in Doom already works just fine to me besides it being loud as all hell.

I don't really know much at all about guns (i've never even fired one) so i'll just leave it up to the rest of you Doomers to answer this one.

An artificial plasma that's easier to control for reasons limited to science fiction.

Maybe something based on ball lightning.

What about capsules containing plasma shot out of a railgun or similar high speed projectile launcher? If the capsule doesn't release plasma on impact it doesn't matter because you got hit by a fucking capsule at 5000mph

9 hours ago, Solmyr said:

@memes4lyfe It could work if the capsule was made out of an impossible material that can endure ridiculously high temperatures, blue plasma is several times hotter than the sun's surface.

lets assume that the plasma is made from hydrogen, the most abundant resource in the universe. hydrogen also turns into plasma at lower temperatures than other elements. also, the plasma can not be blue, because that would be too hot. it should be hot enough to burn something, but not too hot as to melt everything it touches.

2 hours ago, Urthar said:

Maybe something based on ball lightning.

how can we create ball lightning with something as small as a rifle? let alone fling it in rapid succession?

Ball lightning varies in size quite a bit and is still poorly understood, which leaves a lot of wiggle room for a hypothetical weapon. Something that launches pellets of nanoparticles and then ignites them with a microwave beam might do the trick.

Remember, if your plasma comes in a case to prevent everything in the trajectory of the target melting... people can just use the casing material to make armour against it.

If you want plasma to work realistically, just spray it away from you and pray that you don't get any near you. (Thoughts and prayers boys n girls, thoughts and prayers.)

Not again this guy...

2 hours ago, FractalBeast said:

Remember, if your plasma comes in a case to prevent everything in the trajectory of the target melting... people can just use the casing material to make armour against it.

 

If you want plasma to work realistically, just spray it away from you and pray that you don't get any near you. (Thoughts and prayers boys n girls, thoughts and prayers.)

if the casing was heat resistant, but very fragile, then it would probably be more effective.

speaking of which, is it possible to store ionized gas (plasma) such as hydrogen in a heat resistant capsule that is very fragile?

actually, come to think of it, how can the capsule be propelled in an automatic fashion?

Here's an actual Plasma Gun working in real life.

It is a ball of ionized plasma gas powered by lighting. 

yeah, no. that looks fake. unless it is actually firing something that contains plasma.

still cool though!

here is a plasma SHOTGUN in real life!

it can burn things, so it has THAT down. if only it could propel the plasma spark things further.

you could go the X-Com Apocalypse route and say the gun houses a miniaturized black hole. In X-ComApoc the alien weapons shoot disruptor beams, but with a black hole you can make it shoot pretty much anything you want it to.

lmao

it's a fictional weapon designed with game mechanics in mind, so I wouldn't read too much into it (as Edward sardonically pointed out).

another favorite game of mine, Out of This World aka Another World, has a plasma gun that I think is more realistic. it shoots a rapid bolt/short beam, which fries whatever it touches. if we somehow weaponized plasma, it would probably work more like that, rather than floating bubbles. of course, the force-fields and power shots are another matter.

controlling plasma would probably involve electromagnetism, but I'd have to read up on it.

if we used a system similar to a railgun, the projectile would have to sustain itself for at least 1 second. it would also have to retain heat to at least slightly burn something.

23 hours ago, Xcalibur said:

it's a fictional weapon designed with game mechanics in mind, so I wouldn't read too much into it

controlling plasma would probably involve electromagnetism, but I'd have to read up on it.

Philosophers sometimes use thought experiments to discuss a topic in a metaphysical sense, this is the meaning of the word hypothesis.

And using your imagination can be fun =)

cool avatar btw

4 hours ago, reflex17 said:

 

 

Philosophers sometimes use thought experiments to discuss a topic in a metaphysical sense, this is the meaning of the word hypothesis.

 

And using your imagination can be fun =)

 

cool avatar btw

thanks. and I agree, it can be interesting to speculate on how fictional concepts might work in reality.

a plasma could also refer to a colliod, such as milk. a liquid microscopically mixed with tiny solid particles. maybe it shoots that?

Generating plasma requires a huge amount of energy, the same holds true for containing plasma until it is "ejected" from a weapon. Unless you can fit a nuclear reactor (or 10) in your pocket, plasma weapons aren't happening. What's also not going to happen is a hand held Rail Gun that hits whatever it's pointed at virtually instantaneously, because the moment you pull the trigger, you're getting your arm ripped off by the recoil, and that's probably the best case scenario, by the way.

When you're talking military, you're usually talking "the most bang for the buck", meaning that anything that simply propels a bullet at high speeds will be what troops are going to use for the most part. The US Navy has built railguns which they can mount on large battleships, fyi, and these guns literally tear themselves apart piece be piece each time they're fired. And now you're thinking about ejecting plasma that's thousands of degrees hot from a hand held rifle as well as hoping to live to tell the tale? Even if Plasma Rifles were feasible and possible (which they're currently not, because power requirements) nobody would really want to use them, because all it takes is one little failure and you, as well as everything in a certain radius around you, gets reduced to dust.

The kinds of "Plasma Guns" you'll find are possible are these propane based ones some DIY freaks put together for YouTube clicks, for example, and those don't shoot a cohesive projectile to begin with, also their range is very limited.

Shooting hot and cohesive balls of plasma that can travel long distances from a hand held weapon? Not happening.