Real Rail Gun

This actually looks like the real thing, rather than something from a Mad Scientists basement. An aerodynamic projectile that passes through 1/8 in of steel plate at 100 yards, yeah, yeah big deal, but then carries another 7 kilometers downrange. This at zero degrees elevation. Muzzle velocity is 5250 fps.

Rail guns have been flogged in the past as being capable of much higher muzzle velocities, which is nice until you start looking at what happens to things traveling that fast in an atmosphere. Aerodynamic heating, for example, threatens to melt your projectile from a sleek dart to an unaerodynamic blob. Ceramic materials would help here although they lack the density of metals. Details, details.

It looks like the folks at General Atomics have backed off on the power a bit to gain some barrel life.

At the end of the day, a rail gun is a linear induction motor, and it's not hard to build one with an open end that runs on 120VAC and draws 15 Amps. Someone with time on their hands could figure out how fast a 1 ounce projectile would be traveling at the end of say 36 inches of acceleration. Any takers? Buller?