I love the fact that these rail guns can only fire two or three shots before they're fubared.

I'm sure all experimental weapons have had reliability issues.

Might be the two or three shots you need, though...

If you were to fire the ballistic straight up into the air (ignoring air resistance which I realise will play a large role at these speeds) if would get to within 40 miles of the ISS!

LOL!

That would put it past several satellites in low earth orbit!

Although in low earth orbit you'll be travelling in the region of 17,000 mph so you probably wouldn't see it.

That is not my favourite Railgun.

This is:


She can certainly fire in rapid repetition, and she's really cute when she blushes. Maximum impact is about 40GJ with a 10c piece, but she can probably destroy a planet if she's in the mood.

Japanese schoolgirls are the most awesome thing evar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index

Looks like there is a Japanese schoolgirl for every occasion.

If you fired it straight up it wouldn't go into orbit. You'd need to fire it at an angle, which would mean it would have to pass through much more atmosphere, which in turn would mean more wind resistance.

I never said it would go into orbit.

It would go to within 40 miles of the ISS (altitude wise) and then fall back to earth. To go into orbit it would need to be fired not only at an angle but still have a velocity of 17,000mph by the time it got to that height.

Hence my comment about not being able to see it as it would be "stationary" whilst you whiz past in the ISS at a relative speed of 17,000mph.

Am I the only one seeing the obvious flaw in this experiment?

Nope.

The railgun isn't on the same latitude as the ISS.

Do tell...

Although I'm not sure to what experiement you are referring?

I have merely taken the number provided (i.e. muzzle velocity (mach 7) and gravitational acceleration (9.8m/s^2)) and calculated how high it would get (discounting air resistance) and found a comparable height that everyone knows about.

Hmm... if you had enough of them and fired them all at the same time in the direction could we stop the earth spinning?

There is no flaw with that.

The projectile will not have any velocity by the time it gets that high and with the only thing acting on it being gravity it will fall straight back to earth.

Just because it is high doesn't mean it will go into orbit. Once it gets to that altitude it needs a 17,000mph kick to keep it in orbit.

That's the reason that Virgin galactic can't keep an orbit. They can go very high but they need a hell of a lot more speed to achieve orbit.

Say that whilst standing underneath it.

Oh, yes, it will destroy anything it lands on, including the gun that fired it.