Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi all. I have a bunch of neodymium magnets at my house. They are a 1/2 in a diameter but only 1/4 in width. If I stick two of them together for every stage in the Gaussian Rifle, will it affect anything? Or will it be normal.

Gabe T,

Welcome to science buddies and thank you for the question.

When one magnet is stuck completely to the other such that the south pole of one magnet is connected to the north pole of the other, the magnetic field strength of the two magnets are added together. However, the magnitude (how far each field reaches) of the second one will be one magnet length farther away than the first.

The result is that two magnets together are stronger than one, but two magnets will not be twice as strong as one. Additionally three will be stronger than two but not three times as strong as one. Eventually, as you add stages, you will get to the point that the field strength of the last stage has no additive effect on the first stage.