"The power must be monitored and disconnected before the maximum rating of the capacitors is exceeded!"
As a teenager I used to love plugging in little electrolytic capacitors into the wall socket. Like, rated for 16v capacitors hit with (in australia) 240v AC. Man those things explode big time :-)
I did actually try this with big capacitors (still low voltage) hoping for a proportionally bigger explosion, but those guys just fizzled.
Alright, just about now I'm thankful the internetz didn't exist back then i could have done some real damage to myself. This rail-gun looks stupidly dangerous.
It doesn't take mains voltage to get electrolytic capacitors to fail catastrophically. Just reverse the current. (Or rather don't).
Nearly lost an eye when a kid I was paired up with in science class made that mistake. The cap blew off with a loud bang, and I was left with a perfectly symmetrical round bruise just above my eyebrow.
I never forgave him. Not for nearly blinding me, but because he was happy to let everyone believe it was me who had made the mistake!
Even small ones (47uF or so) have safety slits to release overpressure. Maybe that's a recent change, though. I don't think I have any caps older than about 20 years, so I can't verify.
As a teenager I used to love plugging in little electrolytic capacitors into the wall socket. Like, rated for 16v capacitors hit with (in australia) 240v AC. Man those things explode big time :-)
I did actually try this with big capacitors (still low voltage) hoping for a proportionally bigger explosion, but those guys just fizzled.
Alright, just about now I'm thankful the internetz didn't exist back then i could have done some real damage to myself. This rail-gun looks stupidly dangerous.