Inside a laboratory in Mars City One, Lü Yongchang frowned deeply.
The principle behind an electromagnetic railgun was extremely simple: magnetic force.
In the simplest terms, a magnetic field exerted force on electrically charged objects.
On the microscopic level, this was known as the Lorentz force; on the macroscopic level, it was the Ampère force.
In the nineteenth century, Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction. By the early twentieth century, people had already proposed using the Ampère force to launch shells.
Although the principle was simple, developing an electromagnetic gun suitable for interstellar war was no easy task.
Human civilization had never stopped researching electromagnetic railguns, yet they had never managed to replace gunpowder weapons.
To adapt them for interstellar war, all Lü Yongchang needed to do was increase their power.
An electromagnetic gun's power mainly depended on the projectile's mass and muzzle velocity.
With that in mind, Lü Yongchang turned to Professor Yevgeny beside him and asked a question.
"Yevgeny, how powerful is the strongest electromagnetic gun currently available?"
Hearing the question, Yevgeny answered immediately, without a moment's thought. "Professor, with all due respect, those electromagnetic guns are very weak."
"They might replace some conventional shells on Earth, but out in space, they're still far too weak!"
"How so?" Lü Yongchang raised his eyebrows slightly and asked again.
Yevgeny shrugged and rattled off a few figures. "Even the most powerful electromagnetic gun currently available can only accelerate a projectile weighing around 10 kg to roughly Mach 10."
"Of course, that's partly because weapons development projects ground to a halt after the Sun Crisis began."
"After all, we didn't have things like controlled nuclear fusion before."
Lü Yongchang nodded thoughtfully.
"Mach 10... that really is a little slow."
A muzzle velocity of 3,400 m/s... in space, that's practically a snail's pace.
*It