I was reading a little post on "Electromagnetic Propulsion" a little while ago, and it made me think about Rail Guns. I don't know why. Because they're cool!

For those of you that aren't familiar with the concept, they're basically weapons that use electromagnetic currents to fire a metal slug out of a barrel consisting of two "rails". They don't use any kind of gunpowder, and don't require any type of explosions to operate. Yes, they actually DO exist, and they're a lot of fun for those of us like me that are pretty hardcore into video gaming.

Anyway, check out these links:

http://www.powerlabs.org/railgun.htm

http://www.railgun.org/

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/department/ece/railgun/

I just think it's a pretty interesting topic, I don't know if anyone else really cares. But if you do, there it is!

There's an inventor curently working on this for the military. The one he's working shoot a ridiculous amount of ammo in a few seconds. no real recoil either. I say in about 10-15 years gun powder will be totally outdated.

Problem is the rails tend to get really hot, and they take a lot of abuse. These things might eventually replace howitzers and tank guns, and might be used in space, but I think small arms using chemical propellants will still be around as personal weapons.

railguns are awesome, maybe someday we could use as a way of transportation, you put a person in the slug, and then launch them, it probably wouldn't be that effective but it would be an idea for travel over long distance quickly

Doesnt Japan use magnetic propulsion on a train?

Uhh nicey nicey

hehe, there is an Aussie Firm that prides its self on the fact they made a gun that fires a MILLION bullets per minute.

^Indeed why we need a gun that fires that much ammo is beyond me but we were the first to build one that can fire that much, so I guess we Aussies should be proud, sort of.............actually I really dont think we should! lol!

are these things similar to the plasma guns, srry but im not the science genius

They use Mag-levs. Picture a T. The bottom of the train is shaped to fit over the T so it can't derail and depending on where the train is only one section of rail is powered at a time (saving a lot of energy). So basically when the train starts the section underneath is powered from the back propelling the train forward and as the train reaches each section the section comes to life and keeps the train flowing through the air more or less... too bad we don't have them here in North America...

http://images.google.ca/images?q=maglev&hl...lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

Not a bit... you'll really only find plasma weapons in video games