Question

Prof. Grail disconnects her newly charged capacitor from the power plant (see JiT#2), and prepares to make use of the stored energy. When she throws the switch, the capacitor will be connected to a rail gun (A rail gun can be thought of simply as a large circuit with a resistor connected to a charged capacitor (for a simplified picture, see http://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun1.htm). In simplest terms, this is an RC circuit that uses the Lorentz force to throw a projectile (in this case a steel cube of mass 1.5 kilograms). If the resistance is 1.75 micro-ohms, and the capacitor was fully charged, what current flows the instant the switch is thrown? How would you add capacitors to this circuit to increase the current (in series or parallel)? The capacitance is 0.01 F , is meant to store an energy of 20 GJ, and the applied voltage is 2 MW.

Answer 1