Gauss Rifle

A Linear Accelerator

The computer graphic above shows the now classic classroom demonstration of a Gauss Rifle. Materials needed to make one are a cheap wooden ruler (with a groove on top), four 1/2" Neodymium Magnet cubes (held down with scotch tape), and nine 5/8" steel spheres. Here is how it works. The first steel ball (the right hand one) is accelerates to the first magnet resulting in the ejection of the 3rd steel ball. This steel ball accelerates to the second magnet resulting in the ejection of the 5th steel ball toward the 3rd magnet. this results in the ejection of the 7th steel ball toward the last magnet. finally the 9th and last steel ball heads off to parts unknown. Somewhere in my studio are 3 lost steel balls. I'm sure I'll find them someday.

A Gauss Rifle works on a similar principle to Newton's Cradle, the executive desktop toy. 

My first Gauss Rifle was a 36" model using eight 1/2" Neodymium Magnet cubes spaced 4" apart and seventeen 1/2" steel spheres.

It was a nice looking device but I questioned why they call it a Gauss Rifle in the first place. My Gauss Rifle needed to be modified. Soon I had designed and created the "Worlds First Real Gauss Rifle".

"The World's First Real Gauss Rifle

If I can create the "World's First Real Gauss Rifle", why not ...

"The World's First Real Gauss Pistol"

The 4 Neodymium Magnet Cylinders are 1/4" dia. by 1/2" long and are diametrically magnetized. That means instead of the poles being on the flat ends, these poles are on the sides of the cylinder. The balls are 1/4" steel spheres.

You can see how I made them by clicking here

The simplest Gauss Rifle consists of 1 magnet and 4 steel balls. I created these for a couple of the neighborhood kids.

You don't need to strap the magnets down but some energy is lost when it rebounds upon firing. In the background is a copy of the classic classroom experiment.

This is another variation of the gauss rifle designed to launch the last ball. You can fire it in either direction. The balls and magnets are contained by Plexiglas side walls.