Eli5, How does a railgun work?
In: 35
Two conductive rails sit parallel to each other.
Between them, a conductive projectile is touching both rails.
We pass a very powerful electric current from one rail to the other, through the projectile. This creates a strong electric field and (as always happens when you make an electric field), this generates a perpendicular magnetic field.
Since the projectile has just become very magnetic (it has an electric current running through it, which makes it magnetic), this magnetic field pushes on the projectile, which will slide along the rails and keep getting pushed as long as there is electricity flowing through it.
This can make the projectile go really fast, and the more electric current you put in, the faster it goes.
There is a problem though, and we don’t know yet how to solve it.
The rails touch the projectile, pass a ton electrical current to it, and the projectile slides along them really fast. That burns the rails really badly with heat and friction, destroying them quickly.
If the projectile just barely doesn’t touch them, there’s no friction, but instead the electricity jumps a tiny distance (called an arc).
We use arcs to weld metal, because of how good ab arc is at melting or cutting metals.
This also destroys the rails, really fast.
We can protect them will a layer of graphite, which is conductive and slick, but it only helps a little.
We’ve tried lots of good ideas for solving this problem but none of them have really worked.
Railguns are cool, but really expensive and they eat themselves really fast.
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