Magnet Falling in a Copper Pipe
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 01:17PM
Kossover, Zeke in Demos, Magnets, eddy currents

Not me in the video, by the way.

Eddy currents. The magnet falls far slower than you'd expect because it generates electricity in the pipe as it falls. That electricity then generates a magnetic field in opposition to the magnet's field slowing the fall. Coolmagnetman has a good site expaining what is happening and a couple of cool experiments to try with it.

Bill Beaty's (my hero!) has lots of cool stuff about rare earth magnets here including excellent plans and sources for pipe.

Article originally appeared on Hands On Science (http://www.kossover.net/).
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