Can someone explain the physics around railguns.
Do they use Electromagnetic waves for propulsion or?
In: 1
So basically if you have a wire and run a current through it it generates a magnetic field.
You take two wires parallel to each other with current in opposite directions the magnetic fields repel and the wires try and push themselves apart.
In a more general sense if you have a circle of wire and current running through it (note that if current is flowing in a circle opposite sides have opposite flows of current) the magnetic field generated tries to force the circle to expand. Or again in a general sense to increase the loop area. A square shaped circuit would try and stretch into a circle to increase the area inside for example.
In a railgun the loop is formed from the power source (usually capacitors) a rail, the projectile, the opposite rail and back to the power source.
Since the rails are fixed in place, (and to some extent the actual power wires to the rails and the power supply itself) the sliding projectile is the only spot the circuit has to expand. So with lots of current your projectile gets thrown forward by magnetic forces till it leaves the front of the barrel.
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