• Question: How do you make an electronic blow pipe?

    Asked by 13yokeeffe to Tim, Steve, Sarah, Peter, Danielle on 14 Jan 2015.
    • Photo: Steve Cox

      Steve Cox answered on 14 Jan 2015:

      It would be a similar principle to the one they used to make the paintball gun shown on one of the Christmas Lectures. A paintball gun uses compressed air to fire the paint pellet and is, in effect, a type of blowpipe.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 14 Jan 2015:

      Could this be something like a rail run? This is where you have a metal projectile, and an array of electromagnets along the barrel. You switch each electromagnet on in turn, which then accelerates the projectile along the barrel and causes it to shoot out of the end.

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