Homemade Rail Gun

This will teach you how to build a functioning rail gun, a gun that can fire metal projectiles between two electrically charged rails using electromagnetism.

Materials needed:

2 steel or aluminum metal rails

2 plexi glass sheets

6 nuts and 6 bolts

1 drill

copper wire

6 capacitors

10 9 volt batteries

voltmeter

Aluminum foil

Step 1:

Drill 6 holes into both of the plexi glass plates

Step 2:

File the metal rails down to remove any coating and put the two rails between the plexi glass plates as parallel as possible

Step 3:

Connect the capacitors together and connect the 9 volt batteries together and create a circuit between the capacitors and the batteries to charge the capacitor. After a few minutes of connection the capacitors should be fully charged, test the voltage across the capacitors using the voltmeter and disconnect the circuit

Step 4:

Screw the nuts and bolts through the holes in the plexi glass plates and tighten to keep the rails in place

Step 5: Fold aluminum foil into and rectangular metal projectile that will touch both rails when placed between them.

Step 6: Place the projectile between the rails, connect the wire on the positive side of the capacitor to the left rail and the negative to the right. When electrically charged the two rails will create an induced magnetic field that will fire the projectile forward. FIRE!