A low voltage 'railgun'
| Autor: | Robert C. Youngquist, Robert B. Cox, Stanley O. Starr |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | American Journal of Physics. 81:38-43 |
| ISSN: | 1943-2909 0002-9505 |
| Popis: | Due to recent advances in solid-state switches and ultra-capacitors, it is now possible to construct a “railgun” that can operate at voltages below 20 V. Railguns typically operate above a thousand volts, generating huge currents for a few milliseconds to provide thousands of g's of acceleration to a small projectile. The low voltage railgun described herein operates for much longer time periods (tenths of seconds to seconds), has far smaller acceleration and speed, but can potentially propel a much larger object. The impetus for this development is to lay the groundwork for a possible ground-based supersonic launch track, but the resulting system may also have applications as a simple linear motor. The system would also be a useful teaching tool, requiring concepts from electrodynamics, mechanics, and electronics for its understanding, and is relatively straightforward to construct. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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