Having seen a magnetic accelerator cannon advertised on think geek I started to wonder if I could make one. I have some magnets and ball bearings from toy so I thought I’d give it a go.

I started off with an aluminium ruler (it has a groove in it that runs the entire length) but you could use a piece of wood or plastic, the important part is the groove for the ball bearings to run down. Next I started to position the magnets. I wasn’t sure which configuration of magnets would work so I start with attractive poles.

This didn’t have the desired effect. So I tried opposing poles instead.

This returned much better results, but don’t take my word for it, experiment!!

Next I experimented with the distance between the magnets. I started off at 40mm, this distance was too great, the magnets used are not strong enough to capture the ball. Next I tried 35mm, at this distance the magnets are strong enough to capture the ball but too much kinetic energy was lost and did not trigger the next in the sequence. 30mm appears to be functional distance. Less than 30mm and the attraction is too great and the balls won’t stay in their starting positions.

You should keep in mnd that the distance is true for the size of the ball bearings i’m using and the strength of magnets, you may need to try different distances to get the desired results.

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Jonathan Spicer

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