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World's Most Powerful Magnet Under Construction

spectrum.ieee.org — Engineers are readying a supercooled, record-setting 100-tesla magnet at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The magnet will have to withstand forces equivalent to 200 sticks of dynamite concentrated into a space the size of a marble.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 1, 2008

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  • Kahnza, on 09/01/2008, -1/+80Will it erase floppy disks and hard drives within a 5 mile radius?
  • bralynn, on 09/01/2008, -1/+314 8 15 16 23 42 [Execute]
  • v1c1ous, on 09/01/2008, -1/+23remind me not to take any flights that fly directly above Tallahassee
  • Suilenroc, on 09/01/2008, -0/+21Am I the only one who read this article and thought to myself: "I LOVE Science!" The mere fact that human ingenuity has come so far as for something like this to be mostly unremarkable is absolutely...well, awesome!
  • silfiriel, on 09/01/2008, -0/+21An awful film plot about the coyote and the roadrunner
  • ChileanGoD, on 09/01/2008, -1/+19"FTA : "Why would anyone need a magnet that strong? Greg Boebinger, director of the Magnet Lab, says that this magnetic field strength is the only way to test the properties of newly discovered high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide, which may improve the performance of MRI machines and high-voltage power lines while lowering their cost. A 100‑T magnet would also let you conduct certain zero-gravity experiments without traveling into space and let you develop magnetic propulsion systems that could eventually replace those that burn rocket fuel."

    What about electromagnetic confinement for nuclear fusion??
  • PrometheusZero, on 09/01/2008, -0/+17And maybe put a current carrying conductor inside and riiiide it! :D

    /physics
  • fuzzynyanko, on 09/01/2008, -1/+17That made me wonder how long before we get people who will ask "What's a floppy disk?"
  • redfred18t, on 09/01/2008, -1/+13What's a floppy disk?
  • cjmal, on 09/01/2008, -0/+11come on, i don't need to stick stuff to my fridge that bad.
  • saltmiser, on 09/01/2008, -0/+11"The world will only need 10 supermagnets..."
  • Tyorant, on 09/01/2008, -1/+11I smell an awful film plot...
  • Rudegar, on 09/01/2008, -5/+13I just know it's only being build to mess with people with braces! :P
  • secrity, on 09/01/2008, -0/+9Aren't the metals used in braces non-magnetic? I thought that braces were OK during an MRI.
  • danielttt, on 09/01/2008, -2/+10Quintessential demonstration of imagination without intelligence
  • d3dm, on 09/01/2008, -0/+7FTA:

    "At the heart of the two innermost coils, where Lorentz forces create pressures 30 times as great as those at the bottom of the ocean, researchers have placed state-of-the-art nanoparticle wire composed of 82 percent copper and threaded through with silver strands no more than a few hundred atoms across. The copper-silver combination is stronger than either metal alone by a factor of 100."

    Deep inside the Marketing Dept. of Monster Cable, a Vice President is heard to say, "Hey, I have a great idea..."
  • suntzusputnik, on 09/01/2008, -0/+7tractor beam?
  • Ajjah, on 09/01/2008, -2/+9TAKE THAT, CERN!
  • DeuceNQuota, on 09/01/2008, -0/+6The Earth's rotation causes its natural magnetic field, not vice-versa.
  • danielttt, on 09/01/2008, -1/+6Relax dude,,,it's called humor..takes a bit of imagination but some people like it...you can come down now.
  • BossKey, on 09/01/2008, -0/+5Yeah, but have you seen the size of THEIR fridge?
  • PolarZoe, on 09/01/2008, -4/+91.40 gigawatts? 1.40 gigawatts? Great Scott!
  • earlvanze, on 09/01/2008, -2/+6Will it reverse the Earth's rotation?
  • BossKey, on 09/01/2008, -1/+5"What's a hard drive?" is not too far behind...
  • alloyic, on 09/01/2008, -0/+4maybe they're trying to make a time machine
  • opticwind, on 09/01/2008, -9/+12"The year is 2014. No one had noticed that both CERN and the Magnetic would be turned on at the same time. The casualties were in the hundreds of billions. That's right...the God particle appeared, created a few hundred billion people, and then killed them all."
  • rockrapdude, on 09/01/2008, -2/+5So it has to withstand 426 240 000 000 Pa (Pa being 1N/m) of pressure, or in imperial units 61 820 885 pound/square inch. God damn, that is a lot of pressure. About half a kiloton of pressure
  • forceuser, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3Buildin' a magnet
  • unique172, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3Aww, I live close to there. I should tie down my lamps :-(
  • fLUx1337, on 09/01/2008, -0/+3Jesus, erasing floppies?? Messing with CRTs?! Better warn the '90s!
  • inactive, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3The Magnet could totally take CERN but I worry about the Z Machine:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_machine

  • robbiedo, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2Inverse square law. FTW!

    //Should that be Free The Universe.
  • robbiedo, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2Americans cheaped on on the SSC. Why do Americans hate Higg's Field's?
  • flyzipper, on 09/01/2008, -1/+3CRTs too (as in, mess with, not erase).
  • flare1028us, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2Why...
  • silfiriel, on 09/01/2008, -0/+2the Z machine looks totally bad ass
  • ASSASSYN360, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1You would need something like that to store anti-matter.
  • fuzzy889, on 09/01/2008, -2/+3I for one welcome our new magnet overlords.
  • shuffleslide, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1the beginnings of an xmen character rip off maybe,
    or more likely super sterilised man!!!
  • fruscianteisgod, on 09/01/2008, -1/+2wow where can i get one? so i can put it on my fridge ti really flaunt that A+ in geography
  • youannoyme, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Haha. Yay for the first reference I've ever seen to that outside one of my lecture halls.
  • whoreable, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Damn I went to Florida State. I think the current strongest magnet is located just off campus near Tallahassee. Oh well good luck to these guys.
  • chudgoo, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1clearly posted by a lanl employee ;)
  • crazycraka, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1I could see them hosting a redbull airplane event, where they use the magnet pull to slingshot their way across the earth.. Like how a sattelite uses gravitational pull to orbi...
  • CLAWC, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1I've always wanted to have this
  • blahyawnblah, on 04/28/2009, -0/+1And boom goes the dynamite?
  • nydwarf, on 09/03/2008, -0/+1This would look nice on my fridge.
  • S68x, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1Racetrack memory ftw?
  • rexblade, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1lol I got dug down for that? Please if someone has already dis proven my theory it would save me the time to share. Or maybe I just have a my own personal "fan"/troll. Lucky me!
  • CATSCEO2, on 09/01/2008, -0/+1THATS GREATER THAN 1.21 JIGGAWATTS!
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