Muzzle velocity design. In a side by side comparison with the .50 BMG, the titanium round "of any caliber" released almost 28 times the energy of the .50 BMG, with only a 27% mean loss in momentum. Energy, in most cases, is what is lethal to the target, not momentum. In conventional guns, muzzle velocity is determined by the quantity of the propellant (burn speed, expansion), the mass of the projectile, and the length of the barrel. A slower-burning propellant needs a longer barrel to burn completely, but can, on the other hand, use a heavier projectile. A faster-burning propellant may accelerate
Critical ionization velocity produced which when it had expanded so that it was hit by the solar wind gave rise to superthermal electrons." In the laboratory, critical ionization velocity has been recognised for some time, and is seen in the penumbra produced by a dense plasma focus device (or plasma gun). Its existence in cosmic plasmas has not been confirmed. In 1986, Gerhard Haerendel, suggested that critical velocity ionization may stabilize the plasma flow in a cometary coma. In 1992, E. Golbraikh and M. Filippov argued that critical ionization velocity could play a role in coronal mass ejections and solar flares, and in