http://www.freewebs.com/rockypeterso...ccelerator.htm
I'm only a plumber who had this idea sitting on my toilet while I was drunk about an hour ago, so forgive me if it's stupid. I was just wondering if it would work, given that the materials required for building something like this were plausibly obtainable. I was thinking it could be a "pit stop" on the way to the moon or other space destinations, the word "stop" being used loosely as it's actually a device for speeding up an object in space. (If I'm not mistaken, when concerning physics, the word "acceleration" generally applies to objects that are moving, but not necessarily speeding up, right?)
I was wondering if something like this could be designed in space, far enough and not massive enough to affect Earth's gravity, but substantial enough to speed up a spacecraft.