Also, we need to build a one-way highway along to equator. With massive amounts of cars constantly driving west, we can slow down the earths rotation, thereby slowing down the magma vortices under the earths crust and effectively bringing tectonic movement to a halt.

This would also be a massive economic booster for the construction and automotive sectors, along with the tourism industry for the equatorial countries providing pitstops and Haliburton who gets the contracts to excavate the latrines (beware of faulty wiring).

The only downside is that earth would lose its magnetic field, but political pundits could show that magnetism equals marxism (it's available for all! and both start with an "m"!), so that is easily solvable.

Big win for all.

Remember: God makes a kitten purr for every 40.000 km you drive on the Equatorial Highway!

>> ^legacy0100:

>> ^Truckchase:
Insane, it can even make an addict out of cats.

I was thinking the same thing!

Now if they could only port cat-nip to humans...
>> ^Jinx:


If you're a FPS gamer that takes his shit serious you want a CRT. My parents threw away a realllllly nice 120hz 19inch CRT because they thought it was junk. I was so mad. Its really fucking hard to find good CRTs since nobody makes them, and the 120hz LCD on the market just aren't as good as the old tech (and they are expensive), even if they don't take up the entirity of your desk.
tl:dr Don't mock the microwave monitor

Here here! My main monitor is a Sony FW900 with a couple 22" LCDs by it's side for triplewide action. To further drive this post into unapologetic nerd-land, the magnetic field output of my Dell P2210 LCD @ 1.5' is substantially higher than the Sony CRT, and I've got the data to prove it! (pushes glasses up)

This is a really neat effect. Thanks @juliovega914 for some more info on the physics.

As aluminum isn't magnetic, in and of itself, the idea of using a magnet with aluminum can seem illogical. If it weren't for the eddy currents and Lenz's law it would make no sense.

I found a great real-world explanation of this same effect:

"A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses an enormous and extremely strong magnet to study a patient's body. The magnet, which has its north pole at the patient's head and its south pole at the patient's feet, is actually a coil of superconducting wire through which electric charges flow.

Aluminum isn't normally magnetic, but as you carry a large aluminum tray toward the magnet, you find that the magnet repels the aluminum. Once again, Lenz's law. The magnet induces a magnetic field in the moving aluminum tray to oppose its own, effectively pushing it away.

You eventually manage to get the aluminum tray up to the magnet. As long as the tray doesn't move, it experiences no magnetic forces. But when you drop it, it falls past the magnet remarkably slowly. What slows down its fall?
That trickster, Lenz. When the tray is stationary, the magnetic field of the magnet is not changing, but as soon as it moves, the field begins changing and an opposing field is induced."

For those interested in the physics behind this this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

In conductors, electric currents are generated whenever there is a changing magnetic field. These currents generate their own magnetic field, which opposes the magnetic field which generates them. In this example, the magnet once dropped generates a current in the aluminum because as the magnet gets closer, the field gets stronger at the position of the aluminum. This generates a current, which creates its own magnetic field, acting on the magnet, and slowing it down.

Here's where it starts getting really interesting. The generated magnetic field will be notably weaker than the field of the dropped magnet, because the current is subject to electrical resistance. But what if we used a superconducting material, where there is zero electrical resistance, the two magnetic fields should equal eachother, right?

Check out this vid: http://videosift.com/video/The-Meissner-Effect-Awsome-physics

This is called the Meissner effect. This video shows an experiment of a strong magnet being put on top of a YBCO superconductor. All superconductors need to have their temperature dropped dramatically in order to to hit the superconducting threshhold known as a transition temperature. Typical transition temperatures are below 10 kelvin. YBCO is a unique material known as a high temperature superconductor, meaning that it can be cooled to its transition temperature with liquid nitrogen (about 70 kelvin).

>> ^tsquire1:


This is a fear-mongering and thus, viewer selling film. It's entertainment value trumps is scientific value. Instead of worrying about magnetic fields destroying civilization and our human reality, concern yourself with historical materialism and participation in society.


While I admit I think they over did the presentation a bit, (which Nova has been doing lately) I didn't get that take away from it. Perhaps I was calmed by having previous knowledge on the subject, but I don't think it reaches the realm of fear-mongering. I think PBS is just trying to "turn up the volume" in an environment where retaining the attention of the viewer is increasingly difficult. I, like you, don't care for that aspect, however, I don't think its sensationalism exceeds its scientific content.

Just my 2c which is actually 5c adjusted for inflation.

http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/02/is_the_earths_magnetic_field_a.php

"Of course, another thing you should get from the Valet et al. paper is that a full reversal sequence is not an instantaneous event; our compasses will not point north today and south tomorrow. Instead, the geomagnetic field will weaken, and the magnetic poles will start to wander to lower latitudes, and possibly multiply, over a period of hundreds and thousands of years. It looks dramatic from the perspective of Deep Time, but during a reversal the changes over a human lifetime will probably be little different from the secular variation we see today. No extinction event has ever been linked to a magnetic field reversal, and I think that we might just cope with the next one too - whenever it might occur."

This is a fear-mongering and thus, viewer selling film. It's entertainment value trumps is scientific value. Instead of worrying about magnetic fields destroying civilization and our human reality, concern yourself with historical materialism and participation in society.

>> ^srd:

I fail to see why this is exciting. The magnetic north pole has always been off and always been moving (albeit slowly in the range of a few kilometers per year). My old school atlas from 1988 puts it in the Canadian arctic, in the Parry islands (roughly 100 degrees west, 75 degrees north).
Worse than the drift in the north pole are local disturbances in the forc^H^H^H^H magnetic fields, causing compasses to point over 30 degrees away from true north. If you're dependent on a magnetic compass for navigating, chances are you also have an up-to-date map catalogueing the local deviations.
Most aircraft have gyros for these reasons. Alternatively, you can always magnetize the aircraft and place it in a calm body of water. It will always point true north.


The reason it is slightly more exciting/crazy is because the rate of change is accelerating... drastically. From 1970, it has changed from 9 km/year to 41 km/year, to what it is now, nearly 64km a year. The acceleration might just be par for course, but it could also hint at a pole change. Really, we just don't know, and like all things, change scares us to death.

I fail to see why this is exciting. The magnetic north pole has always been off and always been moving (albeit slowly in the range of a few kilometers per year). My old school atlas from 1988 puts it in the Canadian arctic, in the Parry islands (roughly 100 degrees west, 75 degrees north).

Worse than the drift in the north pole are local disturbances in the forc^H^H^H^H magnetic fields, causing compasses to point over 30 degrees away from true north. If you're dependent on a magnetic compass for navigating, chances are you also have an up-to-date map catalogueing the local deviations.

Most aircraft have gyros for these reasons. Alternatively, you can always magnetize the aircraft and place it in a calm body of water. It will always point true north.

>> ^Mcboinkens:

Not exactly, but I have taken two years of physics and am in an Astronomy class here at a university, so you could say I might know something about it.
<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: left; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> Boise_Lib said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: left; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/b/Boise_Lib-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-left: 52px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">◄</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box">Do you?
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<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: right; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> Mcboinkens said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: right; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/m/Mcboinkens-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-top: 1px; right: 52px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">►</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-right: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box">He has no clue what magnetic fields are...
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Good answer.

Yes, I was laying a trap for you. I expected an answer wherein you pontificate on magnetic fields by parroting what you have been told to believe. In truth no human "knows" what a magnetic field is--we can only describe the effects on our reality of the things we call magnetic fields. Even many scientists don't remember that all of science is building models to explain effects we observe--then we change models when needed. The most needed--but seldom used phrase in science is, "as far as we now know."

[redacted]

>> ^Mcboinkens:

He has no clue what magnetic fields are...


Do you?

[redacted]

I was actually (perhaps in a naive way) hoping for the capacitors to become so full that the energy created from the magnetic field would be enough to rip apart a toaster. The projectile shattered not only the toaster's glass, but also my dreams...

So that's what the great magnetic field looks like.

>> ^Deano:

Er what? It's got MRI equivalent radiation levels? You can't bring metal near it? MRI machines have very high radiation levels, far greater than x-rays. Not sure about this at all. It looks cool though.


MRI doesn't have any radiation. It has large static magnetic fields and radio waves - that's not what most people would term radiation. It's very powerful but hasn't been shown to have negative effects like x-rays (which are an ionizing form of radiation).

I wonder how it took them 7 years to develop what appears to be a pair of large permanent magnets with some shielding. Probably costs a fortune too.