Japan Becomes 1st Country Ever To Fire Electromagnetic Railgun From An Offshore Vessel

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 216 points –
eurasiantimes.com

Japan Becomes 1st Country Ever To Fire Electromagnetic Railgun From An Offshore Vessel::Japan has successfully test-fired a medium-caliber maritime electromagnetic railgun from an offshore platform, as it continues to advance its defenses in the face of burgeoning regional security threats.

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My mate in high school used to make these. He'd wind his own electromagnetic little tunnel thing, apply current, and the little metal projectile used to shoot through walls. Was pretty amazing.

That’s a gauss gun, not a railgun. Still cool, though.

Ahhh ok. He'd do them with the capacitors from disposable cameras that the local camera store would give him.

I assumed they were synonyms ? how do they differ ?

They're pretty similar, in that both use electromagnetic forces to launch a projectile.

Gaus cannons use a field around the projectile, applied by wires wrapped around a tube, whereas railguns use two rails touching the projectile to conduct the magnetic field through the projectile.

That's pretty cool, and dangerous

The Venn diagram for those two things is just a single circle