Can Pistols have the power of Machine Guns?

Answer 1

This is an ambiguous question. If you mean fire power...no. If you mean work per unit time, which is the physics definition of power...yes on one condition.

Fire power, in military terms, means how much destructive power can a weapon system or military unit bring to bear on a target. Clearly, with its rapid automatic fire capability, a machine gun can outgun a pistol several ways. It can fire many more rounds against a target in the same amount of time. It can fire many more rounds altogether because it carries more rounds than a pistol. It can cover wider areas than pistols because the rounds can be sprayed around. In sum, a machine gun has more fire power.

If you mean power as work per unit time, some pistols can overpower machine gun power because power = F X v = P in Newton-meter per sec. While there are exceptions, some pistols have larger caliber barrels and bullets than machine guns...especially those machine guns carried by individuals (e.g., .30 caliber) as opposed to those welded to the deck of a gun boat (e.g., .50 caliber) for example. This enables each larger pistol bullet shell (e.g., .44 caliber magnum) to carry more explosive, which propels the bullet with greater force than the smaller caliber machine gun bullets. [See source for caliber definition.]

So your bottom line answer is: machine guns carrying more fire power than pistols, but some pistols carrying more physics power than machine guns on condition of a larger caliber and compared to a single shot from both.

Answer 2

Nope, their escape velocity is nowhere near as high, meaning the bullet travels slower, and therefore will not penetrate as well as the machine gun. This is also evidenced by the pistol's short range. One illustration: The Sig Sauer P226, used by Navy SEALs, has an effective range of 25 metres. The Belgian 7.62mm M240 GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun) has an effective range of 800m. The difference means the machine gun rounds can travel much further (before falling to the ground). So clearly the pistol has nothing near the power of the machine gun.

And I haven't even mentioned the psychological power of the machine gun - just hearing the sound of the machine gun weakens the enemy even before fire is exchanged.

EDIT: Thanks enochiansorcerer (answer 4), I was about to refute my_iq_135 (answer 2) because his answer does pertain more to submachine guns eg. a 9mm pistol has roughly the same power (and range) as the 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5N, for example (they fire the same rounds), but both have less power than a full machine gun.

Answer 3

Yes they can. But a pistol will not be as accurate due to the shorter barrel.
The power of a shot is determined by the amount of powder the shell contains. More powder means more power, however the strength of the material the guns barrel is made of limits the amount of powder that can be used. There is also a limit based upon the size of a guns firing chamber; a lager chamber allows a larger load of powder.

A .22 pistol has the same power as a .22 rifle. A .22 round can be fired from either one and the round does not care which one it is shot from.

Answer 4

No. A pistol generally operates based on the spring tension in the magazine ( holds bullets) and is generally single fire weapon. where as a machine gun gets its power based on blow-back principle due to pressure of burnt gases.

Answer 5

There are specific handguns that are both accurate and powerful as related to certain sub-machine guns, However large caliber machine guns rule in accuracy and power as related to hund guns due to their increased size and barrel lengths.

Answer 6

pistols can be more powerful than machine guns