1. By: Jake Lowry Per. 5 1/09/10

2. Problem: How will the amount of metal balls per magnet, in a gauss gun, affect the speed of the last ball? I would like to know this because I’ve seen and built a gauss gun but have always wanted to know if I could make it go faster.

3. Hypothesis I predict that if I put different numbers of balls per magnet, in a gauss gun, it will affect the speed of the last ball of the gauss gun, and because of this, if I place 3 balls on each magnet, the last ball would go the fastest. I think this because the distance between magnets is 3” and that the gravitational pull from the magnet holding the third magnet will be lesser but the force from the first ball will not be dispersed as much as going through 4 metal balls. RESEARCH

4. Experiment: Materials & Procedure 7 neodymium magnets 29 metal balls Piece of wood with groove down the center Ruler Pencil Journal/Notebook Flat and level surface to place on top of Tape Exacto Knife Stop watch PROCEDURE

5. Results The control was how long it took a metal ball by it self to go 30” so it didn’t go anywhere. So it was ∞ (infinite). I placed the metal balls on each magnet and fired the gun six times each while having someone record the time from the marble hits the magnet to the time that the ball rolls 30”. I wrote down the times and found an average. I found that with: 2 Metal Balls on each magnet it took 1.45 of a second to go 30” 3 Metal Balls on each magnet it took 0.47 of a second to go 30” 4 Metal Balls on each magnet it took 0.58 of a second to go 30”

6. Graph: Results

7. Graph: Average

8. Conclusion So I have learned that when you have metal balls and magnets you can make a gauss gun. I also learned in a gauss gun, if you have the amount of metal balls closer to number of the distance between magnets, it will go faster. (3 metal balls to 3”, 2 metal balls to 2” etc.) I was correct in my hypothesis that 3 metal balls is best for optimal performance. The only problems I had were with trying to keep the magnets apart from one another when taping them down on the track. Next time I would probably use metal balls that were closer to the diameter of the magnet. This time the diameter of the magnet was 1” and the ball was ½”.