NASA is investigating the use of rail guns to launch spacecraft and hypersonic airplanes. A rail gun is a system that converts electromagnetic energy into mechanical energy. Consider a simple rail gun in the figure below. A conducting bar of length 1 m and mass 1 kg which can slide without friction is connected to two rails, which are in turn hooked up to a voltage source. The voltage source keeps a steady current of 100 Amperes flowing clockwise through the loop and the whole system sits in a constant magnetic field of 1 Tesla perpendicular to the plane of the loop. If I release the bar from rest, how fast is it going in m/s after 10 seconds?
Details and assumptions
by
David Mattingly
