Gauss Rifle - This is Cool !!, page 1
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Topic started on 27-10-2003 @ 12:18 PM by Kobyoshimaru
The Gauss Rifle:
A Magnetic Linear Accelerator

"This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use".

Check out these two links, the top one is the full sight the bottom one is the gauss rifle working.

www.scitoys.com...

sci-toys.com...

How it works
When you release the first ball, it is attracted to the first magnet. It hits the magnet with a respectable amount of force, and a kinetic energy we will call "1 unit".

The kinetic energy of the ball is transfered to the magnet, and then to the ball that is touching it on the right, and then to the ball that is touching that one. This transfer of kinetic energy is familiar to billiards players -- when the cue ball hits another ball, the cue ball stops and the other ball speeds off.

The third ball is now moving with a kinetic energy of 1 unit. But it is moving towards the second magnet. It picks up speed as the second magnet pulls it closer. When it hits the second magnet, it is moving nearly twice as fast as the first ball.

The third ball hits the magnet, and the fifth ball starts to move with a kinetic energy of 2 units. It speeds up as it nears the third magnet, and hits with of 3 units of kinetic energy. This causes the seventh ball to speed off towards the last magnet. As it gets drawn to the last magnet, it speeds up to 4 units of kinetic energy.

The kinetic energy is now transfered to the last ball, which speeds off at 4 units, to hit the target.


What i want to know is, are there any limits? I mean if you built one the same at the one above but say 2 miles long how powerful would it be.
Hypothetically, If you could build one which was infinetly long what would happen when the speed that the ball were moving between the magnets neared light speed (assuming the magnets and balls don't shatter), would it blow itself to bits coz if the energy kept building up somthing would HAVE to give.


reply posted on 24-8-2004 @ 12:36 PM by PublicGadfly
Kind of neat but~

Seems to me there are a couple problems with making "much" of a gauss-gun as described:

weight of shot (balls),

frangible aspects of magnets/shot

friction

gravity

The weight of the shot pretty much determines the power (kinetic impulse) given to the shot considering friction and gravity

How 'tough' are the magnets/shot? With stronger magnets or more magnets then the ability to withstand shock of the incoming (upstrem) shot would be important

At what point does friction, either of the 'rail' (ruler) or air impact the shot enough to cause any additional magnet to have no additional ability to increas the velocity of the shot?

Finally, gravity at some point would render any increase in number, strength or size of magnets non-productive.

Other than these considerations this is a neat concept.



Gauss guns (or "Mass Drivers") can't fire projectiles "just below the speed of light". Accelerating an object the size of a bullet to that velocity (within the scope of the Earth) would require a prohibitively large amount of energy.

A notable exception however, is the nuclear particle accelerator, which can propel objects of extremely low mass (protons, neutrons, etc.) to those velocities. This can be done with reasonable energy, time and distance. MadScientist Network



Our gauss rifle uses 12 magnets rather than the recommended four, with a corresponding increasing in penetrating power. I've documented our experiments in smashing things with it here. The Quicktime movies are particularly fun to watch.Erehwon Notebook



Interesting "concept" art from Planetside:
[img]http://www.planetside-universe.com/media/main/wallpapers/wall_official/weapons/gauss.jpg" width="200" height="160"[/img]
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