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Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by dyauspitr on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:16PM (#42783431)
If this was reproducible I could think of so many real world uses. Invisible force fields that can move hundreds of pounds is a holy grail in several fields.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by rUsHeYaFuBu on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:35PM (#42783655)
Ever see an electromagnet crane at a junk yard?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XBWy9gzGGd4&pp=ygUVZWxlY3Ryb21hZ...

You can make one yourself with a nail, some copper wire, and a battery.

Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by swayvil on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:45PM (#42783760)
That's pretty darn far from what we're talking about here. The comparison is absurd.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by rUsHeYaFuBu on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:49PM (#42783807)
How so? It's literally an invisible (to the eye) field that can lift hundreds of pounds.

And magnetic fields are directly related to electric fields. It's called electromagnetism for a reason.

Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by function_seven on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:08PM (#42784049)
Of metal, yes. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about force fields in the sci-fi sense. An invisible wall that a person can't pass through.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by rUsHeYaFuBu on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:11PM (#42784091)
The article is about an electrostatic field. That's far from sci-fi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_field

Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by function_seven on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:16PM (#42784126)
I was clarifying the sense I was using the term "force field". Not a generic field of electromagnetic forces, but the fantastical one that can contain arbitrary matter.

Like the one described in the article, that a person was leaning against and could not pass through. If this were something that we could reproduce, it would have awesome real-world uses. Like a real hover board! Or the best anti-theft protection for my parked car.

Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by rUsHeYaFuBu on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:29PM (#42784259)
You could though. Given a sufficiently strong enough positively (or negatively) charged electric field and yourself equally positively (or negatively) charged sufficiently you could have an 'invisible' wall that you couldn't walk through. Assuming that neither yourself or the field you're walking into has anywhere to discharge to.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by dyauspitr on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:49PM (#42783811)
Can an electromagnetic move organic material?
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by jhgorrell on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:57PM (#42783912)
Extremely powerful fields can levitate a frog - so yes.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/04/how-did-you-g...

Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by kragen on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:52PM (#42783838)
Probably not in a useful way; the induced currents would produce far too much heat.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by rUsHeYaFuBu on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @01:52PM (#42783836)
If it's strong enough, probably. I mean, MRIs kind of work that way.
Re:Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant by SigmundA on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @03:06PM (#42784625)
Yes the 45 Tesla magnet in Tallahassee can levitate small non ferrous things like a strawberry in a little tube and draws 56 megawatts about 7% of the cities power grid.