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[PTTG??]

You are a monster.

I subsist on broken dreams.

I should make that my sig, but I won't.

[ein]

You are a monster.

I subsist on broken dreams.

I should make that my sig, but I won't.

I will then.

Anyway, railgun would be better?
What are the pros and cons of railguns versus coilguns?

[kuro_suna]

CoilGun
Pro:
No rail ablation, even a low power rail gun's rails will wear out if not perfectly sized to the projectile due to arcing.
Easy to make, any solenoid can be used.

Con:
Projectile velocity limited unless you want a complex multi-stage configuration.

[ein]

Multi-staging isn't all that tough.
There are lots of ways to pull it off.
Some cheap and dirty, others expensive and efficient.

[kuro_suna]

Also even a multi-stage coil gun has its max velocity limited due to the time it takes to build up a magnetic field though if your just making it as science project rather than an anti-orbital cannon its probably not a issue.

[PTTG??]

I was under the impression that a railgun was at least a two-handed weapon, if not tripod or otherwise mounted, while a coil gun was more of a handgun and/or "BB-gun" weapon.
If that's the case, you can have a pulsed power supply the size of a car to power your Rail Gun, and you can give it two 60-lb. coils pretty easily.

Oh, wait, I'm wrong. The rail gun has a set of brushes and has a powered projectile. I wonder if you could make it a powered Sabot and reuse it.


I'm still optimistic you could orbitally insert a crowbar down Kim Jong Il's windpipe. I'll have to look up how accurate these things are...

[piecewise]

You really want to do something? Make a machine that lets you arc lightning out of your hands like The Emperor.

I think you can do that just by squating on a tesla coil actually.

[ein]

If you sit on a tesla coil, the electricity comes out of the highest point.
That's usually your head.
But an arc welder gauntlet would be pretty badass.
I've already made concept drawings for a flamer gauntlet.

[piecewise]

If you sit on a tesla coil, the electricity comes out of the highest point.
That's usually your head.
But an arc welder gauntlet would be pretty badass.
I've already made concept drawings for a flamer gauntlet.

Flamer gauntlet is easy. Any flammable gas product plus pilot light and then just stick it on a glove. Also, couldn't you just raise your hands above your head?

[ein]

You could, it just wouldn't be much like force lightning.

[Osmosis Jones]

I've heard that here's been work done on a form of lightning gun; basically, it shoots a laser first, which ionizes the air to produce a easy-to-traverse path for the following electro-shock. In other news, I want one soo bad.

[Thief^]

I built a shock device (basically the kind of thing which would be a power source in a tazer) at high school. It consisted of three 9V batteries, in series, a 16V DT relay, though a normally-closed relay would also work, and a button for turning it on and off. It was just wired so that the relay activating would break its own circuit, which would be followed by the collapse of the magnetic field in the coil, discharging a high-voltage low-amp shock through anything connected to both sides of the coil.

My physics teacher of the time recognised the design, and brought out his "spark generator". It was basically the same, but mounted on wood, with a large hand-wound coil and a hand-made switch for the coil to trigger replacing the relay, a lab bench power supply replacing the puny batteries, and a second coil around the first, effectively transforming the collapsing magnetic field to even higher voltages. It produced inch or two long sparks, enough times a second to look continuous...

I bet if we'd proposed it, he'd have helped us build a railgun. Oh well, I'll just have to build one of my own one day.

[Virex]

You could, it just wouldn't be much like force lightning.

Also, you'd have a few megavolts traveling through your body...

If you really want to make a lightning glove, you'd need to have a sink close to the glove that's charged strongly opposite to the glove's charge. Use spikes on the glove to bring down the voltage needed to ionize the air. When doing tests always stand behind a metallic shield that you do not touch and keep your glove on the opposite side of it. For safety, line the "safe side" of your shield with cork or rubber and insulate it very well. Even then you're doing something that could potentially electrocute you.