3 ms·

Modern bullets are not spheres because spherical projectiles don't want to fly straight, especially when you impart a bunch of spin on them first.

• DrStalker 7y ago
  I imagine such a weapon would be more of a suppressing fire tool than something intended to shoot accurately.
  • rocqua 7y ago
    You still need some accuracy for supressing fire. Especially in the vertical direction. You might wanna keep a horizontal line saturated with lead, but vertical dispersion of targets is usually much lower.
    • jbms 7y ago
      Turn it sideways 90 degrees.
• notduncansmith 7y ago
  It's true that the spin from a centrifugal gun is unlikely to make bullets fly straight, although ironically "impart a bunch of spin on them" is also one of the foremost techniques for making bullets fly straight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling > In firearms, rifling refers to the helical groovings that are machined into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel, for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting. This spin serves to gyroscopically stabilize the projectile by conservation of angular momentum, improving its aerodynamic stability and accuracy over smoothbore designs.
  • catalogia 7y ago
    Relating to spinning spherical projectiles, some airsoft guns impart backspin on the spherical plastic pellets they fire to flatten their trajectory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-up_(airsoft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-up_(airsoft)
• pzs 7y ago
  It's called the Magnus effect [1]. I learned about it from my wife, who learned about it when she did a tennis instructor course. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect