Weapons - Physics and War

The principles behind war have been fairly basic since time creatures first fought. The main effect of combat is to either beat an opponent into a position of weakness or totally destroy them so they are no longer a threat. Physics plays a huge part in combat since all forms of combat require a transfer of energy: drain the energy of the opposition; inflict damage through high forces and restrict the energy available to the enemy.

The first thing to consider when designing any form of weponary is what you expect to achieve with the weapon. For example, if it is an axe, you may wish to penetrate the shell of a robot to damage the internal workings or, if it were a hammer, you may wish to cause internal damage due to high impact stresses. It is from this that the weapon should be defined. It is very easy to make a basic weapon without considering the physical effects, however this will almost certainly make for an inefficient design and result in a less than perfect weapon system.

The nature of this section means that a lot of the weapon design is down to the individual. However, if you have any information that would be useful in this section, please email it to robotwars101@lineone.net