#022: Palm Pre Induction Charging
Owners of the Palm Pre smartphone (sadly not available in Australia) have a nifty way to charge their phones - wirelessly, and magnetically. Simply place the phone on the ‘Touchstone’ wireless charger, and rare earth magnets hold it in place whilst magnetic induction replenishes the battery.
Now that’s a futuristic way to charge your phone. See how it works and then watch it in action.
#017: OLEV Electric Vehicle Concept
Last week, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology showed off the “On-Line Electric Vehicle” (OLEV), an electric car that runs on power transmitted by magnets hidden underground:
The magnetic field is so strong that the train’s battery takes the charge without the slightest sign of movement. No part of the train other than the wheels comes closer than about 7 inches to the ground – a difficult technological achievement considering that the power is passing through a layer of air.
That’s a clever form of induction charging hard at work. There are some issues, most of them infrastructure and monetary based, but there’s certainly potential if the technology can overcome the achilles heel of the electric car - it’s limited range.
We’ll be featuring induction charging in the coming weeks. Check back soon to learn how it works!
Read more at The Christian Science Monitor.
#016: Invisible Magnetic Watch
Blogger buddhazooka stumbles across this amazing magnetic watch which uses iron filings for the hands:
The minute hand and main hand is magnetic, hidden behind a plate sprinkled powdered iron. By shaking the watch, powdered iron will gathering around the hands, time becomes “visible” from no shape.
That’s very, very cool. We know what we want for Christmas now! Iron filings make a great learning tool to help visualise magnetic fields, and now they’re also stylish.
#015: Mission to Mars
NASA’s Mars Rovers, like the Viking 1 shown above, are using magnets to collect and analyse dust particles found on the red planet:
Previous Mars landers (the two Vikings and Mars Pathfinder) had magnetic arrays that collected magnetic particles from the surface and from windblown dust near the surface. The Mars Exploration Rover version of the experiment includes magnets to attract airborne Martian magnetic materials from higher in the atmosphere.
We’re so proud to see magnets conquering the final frontier. Of course, there’s far more magnetic action happening in space, especially considering that Earth itself is a giant magnet.
Read more about Martian Magnets in this article from NASA (unfortunately it’s slightly unfinished).
#011: Magnetic Power Adapters
Apple MacBook laptops feature a magnetic power adapter called ‘MagSafe’. The power cord is held in place magnetically, so if someone should trip over it, the cable disconnects harmlessly and the Mac stays put.
It’s a nifty invention that saves on repair costs and prevents that gut-wrenching feeling of seeing your laptop dragged across the unforgiving floor. Thanks, magnets!
#004: Hard Drives & Data Storage
Chances are you’re reading this post on a computer, in which case it’s highly likely that there are magnets ticking away to help bring you this very post. Where? They’re hiding in your hard drive.
Just like tape recorders of the day, computer hard drives record and access data using a form of magnetic data storage. At the heart of your hard drive is a ferromagnetic platter that holds a magnetic recording material. When you save a document, your computer converts it into thousands of 1’s and 0’s (bytes) which your hard drive then records to the magnetic platter as a north or a south pole. When it comes time to open the document, the hard drive reads 1’s and 0’s back to the computer and the processor assembles them into your document.
It’s an easy concept that is much, much harder in execution, mostly due to the impossibly small nature of computer parts. A 100 gigabyte hard drive (probably below average these days) has the capacity to store 107,374,182,400 bytes (107.3 trillion). That’s a lot of 1’s and 0’s, and it means a lot of work for the magnetic head of a hard drive!
But of course, there’s more than just one magnet at work inside a hard drive. The electric motor (#003) that spins the hard drive uses magnets, as does the ‘voice coil’ type actuator that moves the head to read the data. Two high-grade Rare Earth (Neodymium-Iron-Boron) magnets are used to control the position of the head with ultimate precision.
It gets complicated, so if you want to learn more you can read about it at Wikipedia or HowStuffWorks. You can also watch this video to see the inside of a hard drive working away. Go, magnets, go!
