An experiment I did

Hi all...

I got bored this weekend and decided to throw together a little
experiment... I set up a loop in my living room made of ordinary clear hose
(diameter of loop about 1.5m, hose thickness about 1mm with a diameter of
20mm total) and within this I placed a small ball bearing about 3mm
diameter... I then set up small home made electromagnets every 5 cm
connected to a series of relays, offset... threw the switch and the
ballbearing went wizzing around like crazy... the only problem I had was
that when the ballbearing was going really fast (after about 2 laps or so)
the delay between each magnet pulsing was too far apart and the ballbearing
went nuts and it only had momentum behind it to move it forward.... I will
need to work these triggers a little bit or place some motion sensors to
detect when to trigger a pulse...

Anyway, perhaps this kind of idea could be implemented into the launching of
satellites or whatever in space... if big enough and precise enough I think
this could be a fairly effective way of creating enough speed to fling
something off... perhaps even a straight line but it would have to be really
long...

Thoughts, flames etc?


Niko