EMP Launcher
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Award Nominees , Demonstration , Engineering , Experiment , Physics , Secondary
Ballistics measurements using an electromagnetic pulse launcher.
Director's Notes:
This is equipment home-made by a group calling themselves ‘The Tinkerers’. Sadly, they’ve now disbanded to make way for a younger group, so this was their last project together — happily, they have this film to remind them of their efforts.
SciCast Notes:
Nominee: Best Engineering Film, 2008
Nominee: Technical and Artistic Achievement, 2008
This is brilliant! Stylish, great physics, a nice bit of investigation, and a sense of fun and pride that just leaps out of the film at you. Terrific stuff.
Credit to the group also for composing their own music. I had to reject their first version because they’d used commercial music (including a TV theme tune), but they quickly got back to me with a new mix that’s all their own work.
So there’s lots of work gone into this, and it shows. Personally, I desperately want to know how they’ve built their launcher… but I’d only be tempted to have a go myself, and chances are I’d die horribly. So perhaps it’s best this way.
— Jonathan.