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"Tom Stangl, VFAQman" wrote:
>
> Sorry, but you just built a gun with rails, not a railgun ;-)
>
> I remember seeing a REAL railgun at a science competition in DC once - > the boy built it right - electromagnets would accelerate a bolt fast
> enough (in about a foot) to dent a piece of sheetmetal pretty good.
No, what he built *is* a railgun.
A railgun is just two rails connected to opposite poles of a (usually
powerful) current source, with a conductive 'bullet' between them.
Hence the name 'railgun'. (This is something that our Physics II prof
used a *lot* for examples/problems--even had a military guy come in and
talk about them (the Navy uses large models on warships).)
Note that a railgun with a decent current source (U.S. wall current
works, if I recall correctly) can accelerate a bolt to about the same
velocity as a bullet from a gun, with about a foot of rail.
It *is* possible to build a device which will accelerate an object
using a series of electromagnets, but this is a very complicated thing--
it involves quickly reversing the currents on a bunch of electromagnets
at precisely the right time. Maglev trains use this method to
accelerate, because it doesn't require that the train touch the track.
--
Ben Olmstead/BEM
<bem@mad.scientist.com>
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego Railguns
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| But he mentioned nothing about POWERING his - a rubber band does not a railgun make. (...) -- Tom Stangl ***(URL) Visual FAQ home ***(URL) Bay Area DSMs (25 years ago, 12-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: Lego Railguns
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| (...) He couldn't have used electricity with this configuration as 4.5 v track isn't electrified. He says that the motive power for the ammo was "an elastic built into the muzzle." It IS just a gun that shoots rails. Will (25 years ago, 12-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego Railguns
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| Sorry, but you just built a gun with rails, not a railgun ;-) I remember seeing a REAL railgun at a science competition in DC once - the boy built it right - electromagnets would accelerate a bolt fast enough (in about a foot) to dent a piece of (...) (25 years ago, 12-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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