amp be used to power a mass driver launcher?

[williambrea 10+ year member]

in the 8th grade i made a coil gun that shot a steel slug out of 3 solenoids in line on a pvc pipe. I still have the solenoids if you want to buy em

 

[Gebrochen 10+ year member]

a car battery is your best bet. a capacitor bank big enough for what you want would just blow the coil apart. i doubt what your trying to do is gonna work. look into rail guns.

The electromagnetic field is governed by the amount of current going through the coil. For a 1ohm coil, 12V battery will get you 12amps. 120V DC will get 120amps. Caps aren't any better than batteries except that they can discharge a little quicker. Their effect on a coil at 12V wouldn't be much different than a car battery. You'd need a very large cap bank (probably 20 or more?) to do anything. Very large rail guns use capacitors in part because there isn't enough current capacity in the power supplies they use.

A = V/R ... So, an AC plug rectified to DC beats out a car battery by a long shot.

[edit] OK, so I failed to factor in the fact that most home circuits are 20 or 30A max.

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

wire a bunch of car batteries in series, and run that to your moofer of choice with something to launch on the cone.