Magnetism is as magical as any every day phenomenon gets. There is mystery surrounding them from the first instant you bring them together. Pick up two magnets and slowly move them towards each other. Unless there are markings, you only have a 50/50 chance of knowing what’s going to happen.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, they are going to snap ferociously together, often pinching your fingers in the process. Other times they will resist all the force you can muster and remain just millimeters from contact. Every so often, you will loose your grip and one of the magnets will spin out of control and slam into the opposing side of the other magnet to literally join forces.
Below are the 8 reasons I think magnets are literally fantastic.
8. Magnetism is all around us. Pull out your compass and watch the needle spin. What the hell?
7. Rubbing magnets on certain objects lets you transfer the magic of magnetism.
6. Magnets work when they are cold, hot, wet, greasy, dirty, new and old.
5. Magnetism appears to be a transitory and finicky characteristic. You can pick up a steel fishing hook, but not an aluminum can. They work on some refrigerators and not others. They’re attracted to chrome plated steel, but not brass, aluminum, or nickel.
4. Some are so strong you can’t even get them apart without a pair of pliers, yet they are hardly bigger than a dime.
3. Magnets present the perfect contradiction. Sometimes they repel each other with an exponentially increasing force as they get closer, and other times they do the exact opposite and come together.
2. Magnets maintain a force you can’t see or feel, and which, in general, you cannot change. That force seems to linger forever, unwavering.
1. Magnets are used to hold pictures of friends to the fridge in your house and to accelerate particles to the speed of light to study Einstienian predictions. They make the flap on a purse or money clip stay closed, and are pivotal in great containment vessels that hold plasma that’s hotter than the sun in experimental nuclear fusion reactors.
There’s nothing else in the world that’s so common and at the same time so fantastically complex .
- Order magnets for work here: www.magnetsource.com
- Order magnets for fun here: www.kjmagnetics.com
- NASA levitates mice with magnets.
- Check out the viewing paper that lets you see field lines.
- Ferrofluid Sculpture (below)
What engineering applications have you used magnets for?
Related posts:
We have successfully developed a system for extraction of wear particles from oil flows by increasing a filter’s ability to trap suspended contaminants. What has been documented, by way of independent, industrial third-party testing is a dramatic drop of all wear particles (note: ferrous AND non-ferrous particles experienced a similar reduction). While the initial results proved to be confusing, long term, the equipment in use (mobile & stationary) experienced substantially less failures than previous. With a simple design, the effect is long lasting and tangible, by way of reduced down time and enhanced productivity in all sectors the System has been accepted into.
Applied directly to the exterior of the spin-on filter, the magnetic charge created, has no gaps and therefore the majority of the oil flow passes through a strong enough field to extract and hold in place the contaminants that are causing the equipment to wear prematurely.
I welcome any and all engineers with a need for improved plant (equipment) productivity to call or email me with their applications or questions.
And yes, the results are as dramatic on personal vehicles
The results are as serious as a heart attack