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[minecartnage]

Hey guys, I was wondering if the range of minecart shotguns depend on the speed of minecart on wall impact
I have an aweful amount of large serrated steel discs, and I need to know how big the shotgun accelerator needs to be.

Also, do heavier items fly farther?

[Bearskie]

C'mon guys, I OP needs some help here. Anyone got answers to this?

[wooks]

With absolutely no empirical data what so ever, I can't imagine faster is worse.

[Pirate Bob]

Based on my understanding of how DF models flying objects, the range almost certainly does increase if the cart is moving faster, and should not depend on the size of the object.  I believe most minecart shotgun designs attempt to get the minecart moving at maximum velocity before hitting the wall and ejecting its contents.  However I haven't actually made a minecart shotgun myself.

The size of the thrown objects definitely does influence how much damage is done to the target, as damage is proportional to momentum, which is proportional to size.  However, the amount of objects that will fit in a minecart is also constrained by their size.  This is why liquids are traditionally used, as the mass of liquid you can get in a minecart is extremely large.  However serrated disks should work well, and are more realistic of course. 

I suggest looking at this post, and using it as a starting point:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111303.0

Urist da Vinci would be able to answer this definitively.  He has a post where he summarizes most of the relevant physics, and I am basing my predictions on his results: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=120502.0

[taptap]

Why am I answering this... thread necro, doubt OP still waits for an answer.

[Larix]

Assuming that the second poster actually necroed it because of their own interest:

Yes, speed is one of the factors of minecart-gun range. The others are elevation and angle: the game traces a ballistic trajectory, so _of course_ shots at an upward angle and shots from higher up go further. Weight of the object appears not to matter for range, but obviously for effect.

Water and magma are popular not because of their weight, but because they are the only ammo that can be loaded automatically. For everything else, you need to bring the cart to a full stop on a track stop and each piece of ammo must be "loaded" with its own "store item in vehicle" job. You only get a single shot per cart before you have to spend weeks or months reloading, so you need to take massive efforts to make those few shots count.

[Bearskie]

Sweet, thanks for the help guys.  Especially those references by Pirate Bob, some really good *SCIENCE* over there.