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The Gaussian Gun which I came across some ten years ago.
Initially it reminded me of a Newton's Cradle with ball bearings which are going to move.
But this is something quite different, there are in fact two very strong magnets here,
neodymium-iron-boron ones,
and when this descends very slowly down the slope what will happen?
Something quite extraordinary.
Here we go.....
Good gracious me, it fires like a bullet. How extraordinary.
This time we'll try with just the three remaining ball bearings and again the little trigger one,
it's going to roll ever so slowly down the slope.
Still an astonishing reaction, and notice how far these ones came back
up the slope as well.
What's happening here of course is that the magnet is attracting this small ball bearing
when it gets very close,
and in the last few millimetres it reaches quite a high speed as its being attracted
by the increasingly strong magnetic force.
And it hits the magnet with quite a high velocity. Here it is with two ball bearings
and this now reacts the other way and comes a long way up.
The final one now, a little bit counter intuitive, you would think there would be another explosion,
another bullet but actually what happens is....
ha.....balance, so nothing, no bullet. Now what an extraordinary toy
and what a wonderful demonstration of physics.