From: mathewsd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Reply-To: femm@xxxxxxxxxxx To: femm@xxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [femm] Re: magnetic launcher Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 10:25:01 -0800
If you are going to levitate something, Maglifter may be the way to go. If you are going to shoot something, say to the moon, you need a railgun or one of its variants. You should use railgun (or rail gun) as a keyword in searching for information. Maxwell Laboratories in San Diego builds these. The university at Austin, Texas (U. of Texas?, Texas Tech?) is very active in this area. The way a railgun works is this: A conducting loop wants to expand the area it encloses when you pass a direct current through it, so you hold two sides (rails, coat hangers, etc.) fixed and use your metallic projectile as a freely-moving end piece. You start your projectile (paper clip) near one end, let it pick up speed as it goes along the rails, and have it go off the far end. When you hook your dc source at the near end, i.e. near the starting point, the "loop" expands and sends the projectile flying. Since dc power supplies don't like to see short circuits, you actually charge up a big capacitor and attach it through a small resistor to the rails. Yes, you can build a coil version, but rails are better mechanically when large forces are involved.
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