Hey - A Blog Contest! At last!
My son has been talking about building a railgun. Yes, I'm worried about him electrocuting himself, but that's not the contest question...
As he was planning materials and such, he expressed the worry that the current would heat the materials up to the point of melting and welding the projectile to the rail. "What type of materials would be best?" he asked me. "High electrical conductivity or low? High thermal conductivity or low? High melting temperature or low?" (Actually, to be fair, the third one he knew without asking)
So there are your questions to answer for the blog contest. In order for a metal to be less likely to melt when a given voltage is placed across it, should it have
*high electrical conductivity or low?
*high thermal conductivity or low?
*high melting temperature or low?
Assume the dimensions of the material are fixed.
First/best answer by Monday of finals week wins Whitey's!
4 comments:
I've electrocuted myself quite a few times. The more conductive material is less likely to melt because it will dissipate heat faster, right?
Since Nick is often not online, please keep us updated on his rail gun project.
can you answer all 3 questions? hmmm...
*high electrical conductivity or low?
The highest you can get
*high thermal conductivity or low?
very high thermal conductivity
*high melting temperature or low?
High Melting temperature!
This material is also known as Super Conducting
Don't you guys know me yet - we need some justification with your answers!
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