Gunpowder Essay

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Projectiles from weapons have been limited by a number of factors. The electromagnetic rail gun aims to surpass these obstacles. The use of gunpowder in ordinance limits the muzzle velocity of projectiles to about 1220 meters/second, the rail gun on the other hand can accelerate the muzzle velocity to an incredible 16000 meters/second. Velocity is not the only factor limited by gunpowder. Range is also affected. Currently, the maximum range of gunpowder ordinance is approximately 20 kilometers. Ordinance based on gunpowder also must be carried with the round making the entire round heavier. Also transporting and carrying ammunition with gunpowder has a lot of restrictions. The magazine you store the ammunition in has to be approved with proper …show more content…

An electric current runs from positive to negative end, from one rail through the armature and back down the other rail completing the circuit. In this device the rails act like wires, and with such a high amount of current a large magnetic field is produced through them. The force lines of this magnetic field go counter clockwise around the positive rail and clockwise around the negative rail. The net magnetic field is then directed vertically. This then produces something called the Lorentz force. Lorentz force is described as a combination of electric and magnetic force on a point due to magnetic fields as described by Hendrik A. Lorentz. The way that this affects the projectile is that the force is perpendicular to the current through the armature but parallel to the rails. Therefore, the force acts on the projectile moving it forward. A simple variation of the formula to describe this phenomena is F = (i)(L)(B). I is the current moving through the armature, L is the length of the rails, and B is the strength of the net magnetic field. This tells us that we can either increase the length of the rails or increase the current going through the armature in order to increase the Lorentz force produced and thus increasing the velocity of the projectile. Once the force has been exerted the aperture and the projectile move forward breaking the circuit. Increasing the amount of current is much more practical then increasing the length of the rails due to space restrictions and