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Scientists Accidentally Blow Up Their Lab With Strongest Indoor Magnetic Field Ever (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Tokyo accidentally created the strongest controllable magnetic field in history and blew the doors of their lab in the process. As detailed in a paper recently published in the Review of Scientific Instruments, the researchers produced the magnetic field to test the material properties of a new generator system. They were expecting to reach peak magnetic field intensities of around 700 Teslas, but the machine instead produced a peak of 1,200 Teslas. (For the sake of comparison, a refrigerator magnet has about 0.01 Tesla)
In both the Japanese and Russian experiments, the magnetic fields were generated using a technique called electromagnetic flux-compression. This technique causes a brief spike in the strength of the magnetic field by rapidly "squeezing" it to a smaller size. [...] Instead of using TNT to generate their magnetic field, the Japanese researchers dumped a massive amount of energy -- 3.2 megajoules -- into the generator to cause a weak magnetic field produced by a small coil to rapidly compress at a speed of about 20,000 miles per hour. This involves feeding 4 million amps of current through the generator, which is several thousand times more than a lightning bolt. When this coil is compressed as small as it will go, it bounces back. This produces a powerful shockwave that destroyed the coil and much of the generator. To protect themselves from the shockwave, the Japanese researchers built an iron cage for the generator. However they only built it to withstand about 700 Teslas, so the shockwave from the 1,200 Teslas ended up blowing out the door to the enclosure. While this is the strongest magnetic filed ever generated in a controlled, indoor environment, the strongest magnetic field produced in history belongs to some Russian researchers who created a 2,800 Tesla magnetic field in 2001.
In both the Japanese and Russian experiments, the magnetic fields were generated using a technique called electromagnetic flux-compression. This technique causes a brief spike in the strength of the magnetic field by rapidly "squeezing" it to a smaller size. [...] Instead of using TNT to generate their magnetic field, the Japanese researchers dumped a massive amount of energy -- 3.2 megajoules -- into the generator to cause a weak magnetic field produced by a small coil to rapidly compress at a speed of about 20,000 miles per hour. This involves feeding 4 million amps of current through the generator, which is several thousand times more than a lightning bolt. When this coil is compressed as small as it will go, it bounces back. This produces a powerful shockwave that destroyed the coil and much of the generator. To protect themselves from the shockwave, the Japanese researchers built an iron cage for the generator. However they only built it to withstand about 700 Teslas, so the shockwave from the 1,200 Teslas ended up blowing out the door to the enclosure. While this is the strongest magnetic filed ever generated in a controlled, indoor environment, the strongest magnetic field produced in history belongs to some Russian researchers who created a 2,800 Tesla magnetic field in 2001.
"the magnetic fields were generated using a technique called electromagnetic flux-compression. "
They didn't have a flux-compensator.
I wouldn't call that 'controlled'.
Unless they were trying to blow the doors off.
is unimpressed.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
> accidentally created the strongest controllable magnetic field
Was it accidental or controllable? I feel like you can't have it both ways
Is anyone else confused why they built a cage to only withstand the exact scenario of an experiment?
I've heard engineers often tout a 10x safety limit, as in if you think something is only going to hold 100 lbs, you build it to hold 1,000.
Since they were doing something that hasn't been done, why would they only allow the safety system to only work if the results were exactly what they expected?
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Did they suck off their doors, or did they blow off their doors? Editing is important.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
they get it to 1.2 jigga-watts!
I love how the summary describes a lab with the doors flying off as a "controlled environment".
Oh please, since we are in a supposedly nerd site let's use hard drive motor magnet instead.
Those are pretty powerful as anyone curious enough to dismantle one drive would certainly know. Those are 1 tesla magnets.
the strongest magnetic field produced in history belongs to some Russian researchers
Of course it was... If it involves big explosions, danger, or a glorious disregard for human life then chances are the Russians hold the record in it. Gotta love em for it.
I actually just read TFA and watched the video, didn't see any doors getting blown off?
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
I love this ... the machine worked just fine, the containment is bashed to hell.
This is how science should work ... a successful test, some major carnage to show how cool your work is, and major bragging rights for how much of a "boom" you made.
And, from an article I saw earlier, while the Russian scientists did make the far larger magnetic field, they destroyed their gear in the process. In this case, the gear survived, but the containment was pretty much mangled, which does a really good job of the kind of forces they're working with.
Though, I still have to admire the Russian scientists for the very Russian science of using TNT .. what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for in sheer power and brute force. One has to admire that approach, it's just so much more fun.
...it probably wasn't very controllable....
bickerdyke
--Jesse
this is a sci fi movie of the week NO SHIT
And "indoor".
I love how the summary describes a lab with the doors flying off as a "controlled environment".
Either Japanese researchers have a different definition of "controlled" or it's a Google Translate misinterpretation. Those are the only two options, because journalists never make mistakes when reporting technology stories, and /. has the best editors on the Internet.
is so the rich can be protected when the earth magnetic field drops
"Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Tokyo accidentally created the strongest controllable magnetic field in history and blew the doors of their lab in the process."
So they intended to blow the doors? Neat. I want a job like that! I'd prefer to target other doors than my own, though.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Headline says they blew up their lab.
First sentence says they 'blew the doors of their lab'.
By the end of the quote it's become merely 'blowing out the door to the enclosure'
Such a tiny example of the death of journalism and the abandonment of the sanctity of objective and empirical truth. It flourishes everywhere, compliments of the Internet, the scabies of social media that live on it, and those who prefer happy lies to perhaps dour truths. Scoff all you want, it's not yet too late to become who you think you are already.
It's not the governments, it's not the propaganda "they're" feeding people. It's us. We've become trash.
As stated, "Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Tokyo accidentally created the strongest controllable magnetic field in history..." They did NOT control it did they? :)
Why am I not surprised that a Tesla blew up?
Probably because you have an (irrational) hatred of anything remotely connected to Elon Musk. :p
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The US Navy would be very interested in getting their hands on this for their new Zumwalt class destroyers such as the USS Lyndon B. Johnson. The higher the magnetic field, the more power and a faster rail gun. A bigger johnson for their Lyndon B., sort of speak.
Achh. Enough of your frooffy nice-nice.
Total legit question - what's the purpose of this research? Is it just pure research or is there a desired application?
Was it accidental or controllable?
It was controllable in that they can adjust the strength of the field. It was accidental in that their estimate of the field strength was very low and they did not design the apparatus to contain the effects of such a strong field. Now that they have a calibration point they can improve the containment to cope with the larger than expected field and can adjust the field itself by changing how much energy they dump into the coil to get the field desired.
They were holding it wrong
Definitely irrational. We all know that he is a stand-up guy. He is saving the Earth and humanity and stuff.
From the Headline to the Article:
Headline: "Blew up their lab"
Summary: "Blew the doors off of their lab"
Article: "Blew the door off of the generator enclosure"
Video: "There was a small fire in the fixture that lasted a few seconds, but otherwise nothing happened"
Goes BOOM!
Definitely irrational. We all know that he is a stand-up guy. He is saving the Earth and humanity and stuff.
Yes, he's a bit like Jesus only not as holy.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
This is how science should work ... a successful test, some major carnage to show how cool your work is, and major bragging rights for how much of a "boom" you made.
Not really. It's fine when you are doing what these guys are doing but, as a particle physicist who worked on the Large Hadron Collider, the "major carnage" crazy people worried about us causing was end-of-the-world carnage. While it is true that we would have had amazing bragging rights for creating the biggest bang in the now much sorter history of humanity, speaking personally, that's the sort of bragging we can quite literally all live without.
Of course, the reason the LHC was safe actually relied on observation more than calculation. Cosmic rays striking the Earth can create collisions with energies well above what the LHC and yet despite their best efforts over the past 4.5 billion years the planet is still here.
...the tiny little delicate plot device at the base of Doctor Otto Octavius' neck protecting his brain from being controlled by the AI robotic arms is damaged.
If you're looking at producing high intensity magnetic fields, surely it would make sense to build the cage our of something which is isn't ferromagnetic. Maybe aluminium and polycarbonate. Even a small chip of iron could pick up quite a bit of kinetic energy dropping into a kilo-Tesla magnetic field.
At least he's trying.
Which is the opposite of what you're doing. Trashing the most successful electric car company is not helping anybody other than people who are speculating on oceanfront property in north central Florida.
Did the magnet point North?
Or did North point at IT?
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
An explosion is a usual part of creating an EMP pulse.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
And "indoor".
It was indoor even after it blew the door off of the enclosure.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Eh, it should only be about a 6 or 7 megaton yield...
So the conversion from Joules to KWH is 1kwh = 3.6mj. So the "massive" amount of energy they uses is about what you would use running a small space heater for an hour. What am I missing?
So ya go ahead and skip the 25% and 50% test, just flip that big switch for me will ya already!
Blowing off the door to the cage containing the magnet is a far cry from blowing up the entire lab.
Still cool though.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sounds like they were doing honest to god real science there. Nothing says "real science" like unexpected results and blowing up their lab.
Cave Johnson would be proud.
If he keeps pissing off people at the rate he's been doing, he may well become holey soon.
Did it happen something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
sounds to me like they actually didn't 'contol' it so much as they simply initiated it!
"Governments have been dominated by the corporate entities and citizens have ceased to matter in public policy" true in
Doctor: "So...technically, we are never supposed to put that lever up to 10..."
---PCJ
So they got Star-Trekkian sparks and smoke, and Back-to-the-Future's flux capacitors. I just had a sci-fi-gasm, get the Kleenex. Now if only the damned em-drive had worked, I'd blow the doors off my mom's basement.
Table-ized A.I.
Iâ(TM)ve already purchased my retirement property, using my short stock profit. I am tempted to take one last chance, as an SEC lawsuit is a virtual guarantee of deterministic stock fluctuations.
I won't argue with that
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I find this story strangely attractive. But then I do have that metal plate in my skull.
The "Pinch".
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
You don't actually believe the fatcats are paying anyone for something they get for free from fully automating it.
Automation *already* creates so much wealth, that you can pay everyone a hefty unconditional basic income.
It's just that that money is currently leeched off by a tiny bunch of extreme psychopaths, mainly thanks to people like you siding with their own biggest enemy.
Not because those fatcats actually did any work for it. Their only "work" was in commandeering as many people as possible to do their bidding. No value added by that at all. And now they use the wealth we created, to put us out of those jobs, and imagine that somehow, we would still be able to afford buying that shit.
Just do this very simple calculation with me: Take those top x% that make 80% of the money of the world, and give them only a salary that is based on their actual work hours times value created (so usually zero, lol), and divide all the rest of that money by the amount of people "under" them. You will, by definition come up with an unconditional basic income that is 4 times higher than the leftover 20% they made before (minus the above salaries of course).
The whole economic system is just a big zero sum game of shifting around wealth from hours worked. Plus the made-up money from stock trading, banking, imaginary property and similar crime schemes, of course. But those should be major crimes resulting in being expelled from the civilized world ... or prison.
Definitely irrational. We all know that he is a stand-up guy. He is saving the Earth and humanity and stuff.
Dude, you're Dark Rei. (Or she's Dark 11001000100, pick your poison). Two sides of the same coin, one with an irrational love of Tesla, one with an irrational hatred of it. Both are "true believers" in their righteousness, both are annoying as hell, both will never shut the fuck up about it.
At least Rei is confining her weirdness to stories actually about Tesla.
... can you find the error? :)
Into Magneto
You completely avoided the point in my post.
But, the only thing I side with is the right of people to dispose of their money as they see fit. The less government intrudes in that, the better (be it in the form of increased taxes to pay for universal health care -- which i do happen to agree with; though in a single payer system. And higher education strongly disagree with that one.
The fact is, the majority of people don't need a college education, aren't cut out for it, and it basically functions as a giant money funnel from naive 20-somethings into the hands of universities and student loan lenders. And that's now. I shudder to think what would happen if it got any more lax.
The tinfoil hat part of me thinks the debt situation in the US is a conspiracy to return to the days of serfdom.
Uhhh... Your link is broken?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would figure they would do and know the math before they did this.
I assume it's all known equations, so how could they get it so wrong?
Boy, if you come into my test cells and call a solenoid or linear actuator a "motor", no matter how correct you may or may not be, I will show your ass the door. Words have meanings and we call different parts different names for different reasons. No one in their right mind would call a linear valve actuator a motor. You'd be one of those "well technically" assholes who'd be more trouble than you're worth and I've gotten too old to deal with you jackoffs.
It seems that Trump is already trying to manage the Waffle House---and the Waffle Senate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
You're joking right?
How do you know that this wasn't the 25% test?
Imagine how many Tesla's we can fit in here before we blow the doors off!