Recent content by burtonlang

Yes, the plan is to build something exactly like those, with electromagnets. Actually, the Science-Fair-type-thing that this was for was yesterday, and I ended up just building an ordinary Gauss gun, using steel bearings and neodymium magnets. It was extremely successful and was one of the...

I have five in a row, right now. What do I need to do to activate the magnets at different times? It would be rather inconvenient to manually flip a switch for each magnet at the exact right time... Is there some kind of switch I can use that the ball can activate without causing too much...

Any suggestions at all? It's not firing, but all the electromagnets work individually. What might I be doing wrong?

Does it have to be a catapult, or can it be a trebuchet? Trebuchet's are much easier to build, generally.

For a high school Physics project, I am supposed to create an electromagnetic device (like a generator, a motor, a Magnetohydrodynamic boat, etc.) I was thinking about building a Gauss gun, but was wondering if I could replace the individual magnets with electromagnets. I have a bunch of 1/2"...