Rail Guns: Dual Rods & Current Flow

[bink_02]

Ok, so we learned about rail guns today (they are so freakin' cool), and I understand how it moves one rod down the rails... however, what happens if there are two?
Won't both move down the rails (away from battery) since the current is flowing clockwise, or will they repel each other?

 

[Diane_]

Well, that's more of an engineering question than anything else. It would depend on the design of the gun.

Particle accelerators, like the Stanford Linear Accelerator, propel multiple charged particles at the same time by (in the case of SLAC, at least) having them "surf" on microwaves. The electrons would repel each other, but they're far enough apart that the design of the accelerator minimizes the effects of that interaction.