Magnets, how do they work?

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air hockey just got more extreme.

Check out liquid helium.....

I want superconductor headphone drivers. You have to listen to them in a freezer, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

Why do I suddenly have an intense craving for Faygo?
...and greasepaint.

Yeah, this thread was not what I expected after reading the title...

On a side note, physicists don't really know why magnets work all too well, so good question :)

The guy in the 1st video is CRAZY. I mean, he touching a liquid gas (I assumed its liquid nitrogen because liquid helium is rather hard to handle) cooled metal WITH HIS BARE HAND!!! Don't he know how dangerous is that?! I accidentally touched a metal container which got splashed with a bit of liquid nitrogen once, and its so freezing cold it burned! Don't he understand that its dangerous?! I mean, what he did could got unknown ordinary people hurt by touching what they think as an ordinary frozen metals because they saw some people do it. In my mind, its so irresponsible.

Basically, what happened here is the magnet levitated by its own magnetic force which is repelled by the the cooled metal (cooled low enough for super-conductor state).

btw, did anyone noticed my avatar is the same phenomenon as the video?!? :D

God, how I love science and musics. The best 2 things human could have after God and love.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head Injury 

I want superconductor headphone drivers. You have to listen to them in a freezer, though.

your ordinary freezer won't even begin to cut it.....
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jipan 

your ordinary freezer won't even begin to cut it..... 

Naw, it's cool. It's a pretty good freezer.

You're right, it's pretty cool freezer. Now, can I have some of those delicious looking fruits?!?!
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head Injury 

Naw, it's cool. It's a pretty good freezer.

 

Sure. I'm not one to judge sexual orientation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by logwed 

On a side note, physicists don't really know why magnets work all too well, so good question :)

Well, inasmuch as we know how anything works (since there's always something more to be uncovered behind something new we've uncovered), magnets are reasonably well understood. The challenge is that it's hard to explain simply and directly in layman's terms.

A Magnet Labratory, an educational film from 1959, does a pretty good job. You get to see people at MIT play with live bare-metal high-current mains powered by a lab generator the size of a house, and watch an electromagnet catch fire, all narrated by a scientist with a deadpan delivery that doesn't fully hid his enthusiasm for playing with dangerous things. You also get to see the chief researcher yell at somebody to take a phone message and somebody else keep his back to the camera as if he resents the scheduled invasion. But you also get to learn how electromagnets work. And so it delivers the awesome.

Magnets are cool. They can even be use to confine the very hot fusion fuel called plasma for nuclear fusion power.