What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube [video]

Re:What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube ... by Crito on Monday February 03, 2014 @06:02PM (#7174172)

You could probably use eddy-current brakes as a safety system for elevators. Many roller coasters use eddy-current brakes.

It would take a hell of a lot of magnets to strap to a person to allow them to jump down a copper pipe though.

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Re:What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube ... by taliesinb on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @12:34AM (#7175703)

Another fun example of braking are the electrodynamic tethers [1], in which you (a satellite) are the copper tube and the entire earth is the magnet!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodynamic_tether

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Re:What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube ... by e12e on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @01:35AM (#7175865)

But it's possible to the same experiment with a battery and an electro-magnet, isn't it? (Not sure how the power-density of lithium-ion batteries would relate to floating 80 kgs down a tube... but seeing as people have demonstrated hover-boards, it should be doable) ? Assuming the purpose is a) float down tube, and b) SCIENCE! -- and not c) with rare earth magnets...

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Re:What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube ... by sbilstein on Monday February 03, 2014 @11:37PM (#7175530)

Yea my hs physics teacher demoed this and talked to us about possible applications for a while. i don't remember any but thank you wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current#Applications

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