Slashdot Mirror
How Do 'Singing Magnets' Work?
dpbsmith asks: "Singing magnets are available at all of the usual geek-toy emporia, and, for all I know, ordinary toy emporia as well. They consist of a pair of magnets made of a polished substance with the general appearance of hematite. What is surprising, pleasing, and unexpected is that when the magnets strike each other under their own power, they produce a sharp, loud buzz that rises in pitch. The sound lasts a good fraction of a second and climbs somewhere into what sounds like the 200-500 Hz range. The exact sound and its duration are somewhat unpredictable and depend on how the magnets happen to strike each other. It is a little like the sound that you get when you mash a pingpong ball against a pingpong table with a paddle. What physics are involved in the production of these sounds?"
"Google searches turn up some forum postings that indicate that it is a synthetic magnetic substance similar to hematite that's available cheaply in China as an industrial byproduct. The singing magnets are a little larger than size of olives; the shape is similar to a (U. S.) football but slightly more elongated. Their major axis is about 5 cm long, their minor about 1 cm. They are fairly powerful and will jump together when placed on a desk about three inches apart. They can distort the colors on a CRT display from a distance of over 20 cm.
Contrary to expectation, the poles of the magnets are oriented along one of the minor axes of the ellipsoid, not the major axis.
Neodymium magnets in 'ordinary' shapes produce boring 'plinks' when they snap together. Something about the shape of these magnets makes the sound much longer-lasting and entertaining. It is not simply the bounding rebound of two objects made of stiff-but-elastic material. Transfers of linear to angular momentum are clearly involved.
If course, I'd love to know whether these things were 'invented' or 'discovered', and by whom, trying to do what.
Contrary to expectation, the poles of the magnets are oriented along one of the minor axes of the ellipsoid, not the major axis.
Neodymium magnets in 'ordinary' shapes produce boring 'plinks' when they snap together. Something about the shape of these magnets makes the sound much longer-lasting and entertaining. It is not simply the bounding rebound of two objects made of stiff-but-elastic material. Transfers of linear to angular momentum are clearly involved.
If course, I'd love to know whether these things were 'invented' or 'discovered', and by whom, trying to do what.
This is clearly the work of witchcraft! BURN HIM!!!
Despite what you say, they are just bouncing off each other. The modulus of elasticity is high, and because of the shape of the objects they can only contact at one point. The magnet pulls them together and they bounce apart, the point of contact possibly traveling along the curve of the objects depending on how much energy remains. They might maintain a semi-constant tone because this contact point travels to where the mass of the objects is less, at the ends, allowing them the bounce apart at the same frequency despite energy being absorbed in the material.
I don't have any so I can't verify this theory.
It's also true. I had these when I was a kid, and by pushing them towards eachother, I could make the sound louder, and by muffling them with my hands, I could damp them out. That has to be vibratory acoustics. Plus the sound TOTALLY trips out my son, makes him giggle like you wouldn't believe.
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
No make that scream...
I took the magnets out of an old SCZI drive bigger than my head, and pried them apart with a screwdriver.
Well I was holding a magnet in each hand, and while I was walking they got a little too close, and my was caught in-between. Oh I sang, like a little girl in church choir.
Long story short, I didn't need stitches, but I did have one very bruised bone, not to mention my ego...
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
This is blowing my mind. You would think it should be a constant frequency with decay, like the classical pendulum. The difference between the classical pendulum and this case is that for a pendulum, the force is constant; with the magnet, the force is inversely proportional to the distance between the magnets. As the energy in the velocity (E=1/2mv^2) is converted to heat, the magnets have a lower velocity so they travel a shorter distance away from the other magnet. The closer the magnets are, the greater the force, again reducing the period between "clacks". The frequency increases because the magnets have a non constant in the force between them (the force increases as the reciprocal of the square of the distance).
I'm sure that the guys who are selling audiophile lacquer for $200/oZ and wooden potentiometer knobs for $500 a piece will have a much more amazing explanation involving quantum audiodynamic subparticle field wavetransformation theory, that not only makes your audio equipment sound more open and free flowing with a nice improvement in resolution, better dynamics and improved overall naturalness, but also improves the taste of wine making it older in a matter of seconds (a widely known property of magnets), but I--a boring scientist--will only tell you this: they bounce.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
$1,200.00 is not that much for a high quality digital cable, but notice the arrows on the pictures. They indicate the direction in which the sound should flow. Of course it works best with quantum sound purifiers which strips electronic noise from individual electrons. When you are at it, don't forget to buy your tuning dots: "Marigo's VTS Tuning Dots have been one of the most effective and dramatic steps I have taken to improve my system's performance. The improvements were not sublte. They brought great transparency without losing musicality. Clarity, dynamics, inner detail, midrange bloom, bass slam and articulation have such an improved sense of openness that they represent a major paradigm shift in resonance control." Yes, those are little round stickers in various sizes that cost between $5 and $20 a piece, that you should stick to every single piece of equipment and flat surface in your listening room. It is not surprising that when James Randi offers them a million dollars if they can demonstrate that it works in a simple double-blind test (search the commentary archive for audiophile) they don't want it--if I was selling stones and sticks for thousands, I wouldn't want that laughable million either.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
I have a pair, and this is the only explanation that makes sense to me. I imagine that the effect would also happen on a whole range of rounded magnets of this type, but with the length of the "buzz" varying - the stretched football shape is probably just one of the more effective ones.
If you try to isolate the system by throwing them up in the air so they pull together and strike each other while airborne, they will generally buzz for quite a long time - generally, it stops because the motion was dampened by your hand (or whatever else they land on) rather than coming to a stop on its own.
The whole effect is made even more fun because if you throw them in the air, they will spin around each other like a cat in zero gravity.
"Sharpen razors overnight with a patented proprietary magnetic field. After each shave simply place the blade edge on the Razor-Mate. Razor blades are reported to last up to ten times longer, and give a smoother, closer shave." Looks impressive, but I only use free magnetic fields and I am strongly against field patents.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
You are unaware of the basics of metallurgy in steel, as well as of 'singing' in swords.
A properly made sword rings when tapped. This is because the fittings (hilt, pommel and handle) are tight, and do not dampen vibration. If the blade has any cracks, these will also dull the ring of a sword.
Additionally, a good western sword flexs a fair amount during cutting or thrusting. This in itself is not a positive or negative feature. However, a blade that returns too much vibration to the hand may be uncomfortable to use (think about how a bat stings your hands when you hit something with it).
The addition of chromium to a steel in quantities of over 13% makes 'stainless' steel. Not only does the addition of high levels of Cr make the steel resistant to stains, it makes in more 'deep hardening'. This is in refference to the cooling of steel from the the point at which all of the carbon in the steel is disolved in the solution(AC1, also called the Currie point, which is generally above 1350 degress F) down to below the point(MS, below 900 degrees F) at which martensite (hardened steel) is formed.
In this process, a variety of different crystaline forms can be produced. If you cool slowly, you will probably end up with pearlite. This is soft, and relitively flexible, and not at all good for blades. If you cool faster, you will end up with grains (crystals) of martensite, which is harder, and more springy (once tempered) much better for knives and swords.
Now, back to why stainless is bad for swords. Stainless is deep hardening because the chromium pins the edges of the grains (crystalline stuructures of carbon and iron), preventing them from growing when heat is applied. Smaller grain sizes lead to increased hardness. Unfortunately, the introduction of the chromium into the edges of the crystals causes them to be less strong. This leads to lower flexiblity. Lower flexility leads to swords that fail castastrophically durning use.
I'm not a metallurgist by any means, but I have made a half dozen swords, a hundred plus knives, and been studying heat treating of swords for about a dozen years. Please, spend 300+$ on good old fashioned carbon steel if you must have a sword. Heck, even get a good stainless steel sword from Rob Criswell or one of the Dawsons, but quite buying that cheap stainless crap on ebay and in the Mall cutlery stores. Support a sword smith with real talent, here in the US. There are lots of us, It's a better deal in the long run.
Josh Powell, owner and operator of Josh Powell Custom Knives.