Does a Magnet Gun Conserve Momentum?
Betteridge’s Law of Headlines: “Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no'”. But this is a physics topic, and conservation of momentum is a pretty well-established law if there is no net external force on the system. So we expect the answer to be “yes”. Thus you can tell Rhett is not a headline-writer looking to stir up controversy, else he would have written something like Does a Magnet Gun Violate Conservation of Momentum?
Looks like a fun toy, and I’m a sucker for fun toys. To the bat cave lab!
Wear eye protection – strong magnets are brittle. The large scale “anomaly” is a rail gun. A high-powered rifle has quite a recoil kick, but much of that is from the whoosh of hot gases after the bullet departs. A good muzzle brake reduces recoil, and add a LimbSaver recoil pad. A recoilless rifle shoots gas in both directoons. Artillery pieces can have physical hydraulic brakes. Rail guns and coil guns have “no” recoil despite boosting a 3.2 kg projectile to 7900 fps (re M16 .223 round at 0.0041 kg and 3050 fps).
The recoil is against the field, not the barrel or the chamber.