Is there a difference between a magnetic sled and magnetic rail delivery system? Just curious because PopSci did an article on a MagSled that is being designed to launch stuff into space.
When people think of how magnetic guns work, they generally think of coil guns. When they think of what they do, they think rail guns.
A coil gun uses a magnetic coil to generate a magnetic field which pushes/pulls the projectile, generally acting on a magnet in the projectile to improve performance. The coils generate a lot of heat, and take alot of power.
Rail guns work differently. The power goes up one rail, across an armature on the projectile/sabot, and down the other. The rails repel each other, and when they interact with the armature, they move it away from the power source. You have to get very high currents to make it work. The other problem here is arcing. Try scraping a welding electrode over some metal. It sticks, right? If you do it just right to make it move, you'll also get the arc, which will tear up the surface of the metal. This happens in a rail gun. Arcing between the rail and the projectile tear up the surface, leading to a very short barrel life. Even with big guns, you expect more than twenty shots before swapping out the barrel.
I've been playing with some of this. My brother and I figured a forty foot gun running off a semi engine to charge can give you a shot a minute that's equivalent to a 155mm shell. We calculated the HE content of hte shell with 40% weight, and TNT. This is the energy of the EXPLOSIVE, not the muzzle energy. I wonder if with a gun that big, you get much destructive power out of the velocity.