Dropping a magnet in a copper tube

[Frequency]

maaaan my grandpa taught me this years ago

you homefries need to catch uppp

[Ad Bot]

[Yosher]

maaaan my grandpa taught me this years ago

you homefries need to catch uppp

my grandpa could beat up your grandpa

[General]

This has nothing to do with currents though...

Actually yes it does, a current is induced in the copper tube due to the motion of the magnet creating a force in the upward direction for the magnet meaning that the overall force acting down is less

[Toxicology]

You would die. Magnetic fields follow the inverse square law, so you'd need really strong magnets to induce a sufficient current. What would end up happening is that the positive poles of the magnets on your chest would attract the negative poles of the magnets on your back, and you would be crushed spectacularly.

NERD

[gebenuwell]

NERD

WHAT A DORK

[Racerboy]

I've done this before with a piece of thin copper tubing, maybe about 1/2" OD, and a cylindrical neodymium magnet that just passed through the copper tubing, with about .100" clearance. The magnet stays, or tries to stay, in the center of the tubing leaving an even gap around all sides of it, never touching the tubing, all because of the magnetic field it generates around it.