Railgun

Claimed by fmaxwell6.

A railgun is used to launch conducting projectile at a high rate of velocity using only the forces deriving from electric and magnetic forces. The system is comprised of two parallel conducting "rails", a conducing projectile to be launched, and a battery to complete the circuit and to produce the current required to fire the projectile. Railguns are most often thought of as a type of kinetic energy weapon, meaning they use their momentum to create their destructive power instead of an explosive payload. While there are other types of kinetic energy weapons around today most of their speeds top out at Mach 3, where as a railgun theoretically could reach speeds in excess of Mach 10, however current prototypes are in more if the Mach 6 range.

The Main Idea

A railgun uses the principles of electromagnetics to create a weapon out of a conducting rod which is accelerated using the Lorentz Force in order to make the rod a projectile.

Schematic diagram of a railgun

A Mathematical Model

The Lorentz Force is the primary component in creating a railgun and is best know by the formula below: [math]\displaystyle{ {F} = I\int \mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{\ell}\times{B} }[/math]

Railguns and the Navy

As of now most the research, funding, and development for railgun weapons comes from the United States Navy.

Examples

Be sure to show all steps in your solution and include diagrams whenever possible

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
2. How is it connected to your major?
3. Is there an interesting industrial application?

History

Put this idea in historical context. Give the reader the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

See also

Are there related topics or categories in this wiki resource for the curious reader to explore? How does this topic fit into that context?

Further reading

Books, Articles or other print media on this topic

External links

[1]

References

This section contains the the references you used while writing this page