RAILGUN
hOW DOES
A RAILGUN WORK?
wHAT
ARE ITS USES?
WHERE
CAN I GET ONE?
The
basic principle behind a railgun is this: There are two rails running
parallel to each other. One is is hooked up to a positive terminal
and the other is attached to the negative terminal. The projectile
is a tapered aluminum cylinder. Capacitors store a charge.
To fire the railgun, the round is dropped directly between the rails and
at the same instant, the capacitors discharge. The aluminum round
breaks the magnetic field and is discharged at an incredible speed.
In high powered railguns, the round generates such a high velocity that
it never actually hits the target. The heat from the friction between
the air and the projectile literally vaporizes the target. The round
it self later vaporizes.
There
is currently very little practical use for a railgun in warfare.
The one shown in the picture above is not much more powerful than a standard
.50 cal rifle and probably twice as heavy. The navy has some railgun
prototypes mounted on ships. They are relatively well suited for
their purpose. They are powerful enough to bore a hole the size of
a trash can lid in a steel hull. Unfortunately, they are slow to
load and very heavy. They use a great deal of power so the capacitors
have to recharge every time they are fired. As our technology grows,
railguns may become commonplace on the modern battlefield.
Two
of my colleagues and myself are currently working on a railgun. We
have a prototype already built and we plan to begin testing February 20,
1999. As soon as we are finished with the first round of testing,
we will revise the design if neccessary and then retest. After the
first round of testing, hopefully I will have a few test photos posted
on this page and I plan to post our prototype schematics with a materials
list and instructions for building one of your own. That should be
up within the week of February 16th.
If you have any suggestions,
you can email me at [email protected]
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