Building a Miniature Magnetic Earth

Doofus writes "There was an interesting story on NPR this morning about a geophysicist who has constructed a miniature earth to model the earth's dynamo effects. Dan Lathrop, a geophysicist at the University of Maryland, has constructed a 10-foot diameter stainless steel sphere. He intends to fill the sphere with molten sodium and spin the sphere to examine the propensity for the system to generate its own magnetic field. The article includes both video, in which Lathrop spins up the sphere, and audio, including the conversion of magnetic wave functions in prior experiments into audible sound: literally the music of the spheres."

Comments

Re:thats a lot of sodium...

[mapsjanhere]

googling "density liquid sodium" would have given you 927 kg/m^3 as the correct number
doing your unit conversions correctly would have given you 13.77 tons
and I get scared with a kilo in my reactions - I'm a wimp

What could possibly go wrong?

[mangu]

Here are some interesting (true) stories on what happens when sodium hits water. But those are about small blocks, one kilo or so, and solid at ambient temperature.

This guy now seems to bring this "sodium party" thing to a new, unprecedented level...