posted on Mar, 25 2004 @ 09:51 AM
This has been covered before, and quite thoroughly debunked.
As was said above, the energy required to reduce sand to glass would be much better put to use as motive power for an energy weapon, not to mention
the fact that any device capable of converting both sand AND water to munitions would have to be very, very complex, and thus, more than likely,
prohibitively bulky.
Besides, a shard of glass or ice just doesn't have the destructive capacity of a gunpowder-launched metal slug. A round from a high-powered rifle
causes hydrostatic pressure in a hit target to go pretty much bat#... essentially, it causes a full-body concussion capable of rupturing blood
vessels, destroying sensitive organ and nervous tissue, and other such wonderful things... plus, a metal round will ricochet within the body, ripping
itself a nice little path of destruction. A shard of glass or ball of ice, on the other hand, would just pierce the target and have done with it;
sure, they might bleed a bit, but even a light flak jacket would more than likely deflect a shot from such an armament.
All in all, yeah, it sounds great in theory... but it just wouldn't work properly in practice.