Gauss Guns Essay

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The theory behind gauss guns is that you can take electrical energy and convert it to kinetic energy by using an electromagnetic energy storage field.

In essence, you take a ferrous object (the projectile) and place it at one end of a hollow solenoid. When electricity is applied to the coils inside the solenoid, a magnetic field is generated which pulls the projectile towards the center of the coils. As the projectile reaches the center and continues, the magnetic pull decreases and eventually reverses. Before this happens, you need to either shut off the field, or reverse it. This will allow the particle to continue out the opposite side of the solenoid and beyond, thus being a "gun".

This system cannot make for a very powerful projectile without becoming prohibitively draining in terms of power for the coils. But it is possible to line up …show more content…

EnergyBeam.com has developed a gauss gun can crusher. The University of Texas has a nice Rail gun and Gauss Gun.

Rail guns and Gauss guns are very similar in that they both operate under similar theories. While Gauss guns are concerned with electromagnetic forces, Rail guns use electrostatic forces.

One of the main differences then becomes the projectile, which in the rail gun must be a charged particle. This particle passes between plates on a capacitor, heading toward the negative charged plate. As with the Gauss gun, you either deactivate to charge as it gets near the end of the plate, or reverse the charges so the next plate is negatively charged. In this way, kinetic energy is built up, and the projectile accelerates.

Physically, Lorentz forces are responsible for the acceleration of your charged particle. When the current from the particle passes along the magnetic field, it experiences a torque in the direction down the barrel of your rail gun, being pushed

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