Homemade Electromagnetic Coil Launcher Works Surprisingly Well ...

A homemade electromagnetic coil launcher isn’t something you would typically consider a weekend science project, that is unless you’re aerospace engineer Tom Stanton. He created just that, complete with permanent magnets nestled along both sides of the channel in an alternating north/south pole fashion.

The sled itself uses a single wound coil sporting brushes to contact metal rails along both sides of the channel. An alternating current is then applied to this system, resulting in the coil becoming an electromagnet and giving it the ability to propel itself along the channel. Let’s just say that this invention works surprisingly well for launching model airplanes.

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Fun idea. Some improvements: iron strips on the outside of the magnets to close the field lines; square coils to get get the drive currents perpendicular to the field; graphite core to increase field strength; graphite brushes to reduce contact resistance; use finer wire with more turns to reduce current, all things being equal you’ll get the same force and mass if you halve the wire cross section and double the turns (or you can then double the voltage to double the force for the same mass),” said one commenter.

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