Re: Navy test fires railgun: Video
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: gathert</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nooooope. (Chuck Testa). There is no actual explosion so recoil is negligible, for something of that size anyway. The projo is constantly being pushed forward by an invisible force and doesn't have any pressure built up behind it, ergo no recoil. </div></div>
I really hope you're joking here, because you just ignored several key laws of very basic physics. Recoil is not caused by gasses expanding from the end of a gun, it's caused by the Force(capital f here, as in mass times acceleration) that is counter to that which is acting on the bullet. Accelerating objects impart an equal and opposite force on ANYTHING projecting them, regardless of the power source, be it compressed air, twisted rope, bent wood, gunpowder, or magnetic fields.
Five seconds on wikipedia about railguns would have brought you this little tidbit "The recoil force exerted on the rails is equal and opposite to the force propelling the projectile. The seat of the recoil force is still debated. The traditional equations predict that the recoil force acts on the breech of the railgun. Another school of thought invokes Ampère's force law and asserts that it acts along the length of the rails (which is their strongest axis).[7] The rails also repel themselves via a sideways force caused by the rails being pushed by the magnetic field, just as the projectile is. The rails need to survive this without bending, and must be very securely mounted."