On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 12:06:55AM -0400, Richard Aiken wrote:
> I would assume (not knowing such math) that the "peak power" would
> be when the capacitor initially discharges into the barrel, for each
> pulse. So why is peak power for the lower powered weapon higher than
> for the higher-powered weapon? One capacitor releases 100MGW once,
> the other releases 20MGW five times.

Power is energy per unit time.  The energy per pulse is 1/5th as much,
but it has to get it out 10x faster (1 microsecond instead of 10).
That works out to twice the power.  So however it works, the equipment
will have to be able to handle that increased flow of power through
whatever it uses to generate and direct the laser pulses.

- Tim