Gauss Rifle
Magnetic Linear Accelerator
(Sponsored Project Guide)
Introduction:
The Gauss Rifle also known as the Gaussian gun is a very simple experiment that uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. This educational and amusing project is very simple to build (it only takes a few minutes), is is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use.

In the beginning, a steel ball starts rolling towards a magnet taped to a plastic rail. As soon as the rolling ball hits the magnet, another ball in the opposite side is launched and leaves the device at a very high speed.

Gauss Rifle, Magnetic Linear Accelerator
 
Materials and instructions:
The Magnetic Accelerator makes a good science project because you can easily have a question, define variables, propose a hypothesis, and run scientific experiments about it.

You can also have a results table and graph and the presentation is exciting. Everyone loves to see a stationary ball that suddenly moves at fast speed without any visible cause for that.

Materials include super strong magnets and steel balls and a wooden or aluminum rail. All materials are available as a kit from MiniScience.com.

The experiments are easy, quick and exciting.
Details of this project:
More details about this project is available in the members section of ScienceProject.com web site. Please log in to view the details. All members have access to this project guide. This is a Free/ sponsored project guide and it will not count towards your project credits.

Success rate: The success rate in making a working gauss Rifle is about 99%. Most failures are caused by wrong materials (weak magnets, wrong size balls) or not reading the instructions.