i24c41
- Technology
Navy Tests 32-Megajoule Railgun
Um, wow. This video comes from a test firing of the Navys Elecromagnetic Railgun (EMRG), which was carried out yesterday at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. The gun—which generates a powerful electromagnetic field to hurl projectiles at extremely high speeds—is rated at 32 megajoules, but the railgun engineers have to work up to that number slowly: this test was designed to reach a record-setting muzzle energy rating of 10 MJ. (The actual number turned out to be 10.64 MJ, according to Collin Babb with the Office of Naval Research.) One big question this video begs is, what causes the giant fireball?
4.11.2008 at 07:11pm - Comment by i24c41I seem to remember that Popular Science has run articles before on the rail gun. Mid 1980's, spoke of speeds of 8 miles per second. So, 8000 feet per second seems rather slow. My (Old Now) memory says that 7 miles per second for a 30 pound object is equal to escape velocity. With the advent of the radio shack model 3 computer, it was possible to control a switching mech quick enough to pull push a ball point pen (they were metal those days) to an interesting velocity. Enough to get it through a pine 2 x 4. I would have thought a modern projectile would be a plastic, boron fiber?
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