Homopolar Generators (N-Machine) by Bruce de Palma

[Magluvin]

One thing that gets me. We see these AA batt/mag with the wire rotating around, then the mag spin on its own where the field of the wire contacts dont seem to be part of the equation. The spinning wire has pretty much no torque, but the mag under the same arrangement does have torque. Even with the wire in a completely different orientation, the mag seems to spin just as well.    So when the magnet is stationary under the battery, is there a field altering of the mag according to where the wire is contacting the outer edge of the mag and possibly changing that position in reference to where the outer wire is make a difference in how well the wire spins or not so well?    All kinds of things are popping in the brain. 

Mags

[Magluvin]

Hi mags

Like you said many believe that field is stationary but im still not satisfied without experimental proof. Experimenting is the only way i can see to end up this mind bogling paradoxes.  If only i have a large magnet i will do that experiment.

I have a setup I plan to make that will show if the disk mag can spin or be stationary. Trying both ways. Will show when I figure out all the details.

Mags

[ElectricPirate]

There are vid demos that show when 2 disk mags are held apart, in attraction, when one of them is spun, with a drill if I remember correctly, the other did not spin. But, if we allow the test magnet to be free in 2 or 3 dimensions, the magnet as a whole can be moved in many directions, so say a large disk mag is spinning on axis, the fields departing the face of the mag has no affect on a conductor in its path, but if we move the conductor and the mag stationary, the conductor will have current.  In tests I have done, if we small mags mounted to the surface of a coil, each of those fields from the individual mags will not produce current in the coil, as the fields tend to remain as the are, whether the assembly moves through air or spins like an HP motor/gen.

Im sure that if we spin a disk mag on axis, we could sense(hall sensor, small pickup coil) highs n lows in field strength due to imperfections within the magnet, but no apparent dragging of the fields as if the magnet were moved in any other way, other than spinning on its axis.

So myself, if there are no field lines, it kinda has me thinking differently about how the fields induce current in a wire.  More on that later as I gain more understanding on it myself.

Mags

I also watched that video but still im not convinced. What if the magnetic field is a flow of particle or ether? Thus rotating the magnet will only create particle vortex and this woundnt affect the other magnet. Back to your video, can you make a picture with a current direction and polarity of magnet. I like to know this because there is still unsolved question here. Why would the magnet changes its rolling direction if the wire is touched to the center of the magnet?

[ElectricPirate]

I have a setup I plan to make that will show if the disk mag can spin or be stationary. Trying both ways. Will show when I figure out all the details.

Mags

Okey, I will wait for this...  I hope you discover again something different..

[TinselKoala]

So myself, if there are no field lines, it kinda has me thinking differently about how the fields induce current in a wire.

It all depends on what you mean by " are ".   

Magnetic field lines have the same kind of reality as elevation contour lines on a topographic map of terrain. They are convenient mathematical fictions that allow us to describe consistently the direction and the strength of how "test particles" would move in the presence of magnetism. Just as a road really goes nowhere, but we travel along a road, field lines don't represent a "flow" of  magnetism, they simply represent strength and direction of how other things would "flow" in the field. The concept of the field is itself a metaphor, a very useful one.
On a topo map, when the contour lines are close together you know that there is a steep slope in the reality and a ball, for example, would roll in a particular direction (at right angles to the lines and in the direction of lower elevation) and speed (fast where they are close). If the contour lines are far apart, the real place is flat or nearly so and the ball will roll slowly if at all ... but still at right angles to the contour lines.
And just as a standard topo map has contour lines that are well defined (as to the elevation change represented by successive lines) so too does a magnetic field line have a specific definition in terms of mathematical relationships between the quantities of the field and the test particle. 

Tesla's "rotating magnetic field" is of course composed of stationary fields from separate coils, energized in sequence around a circle. A "test particle" like the Egg of Columbus rotates because it is following the sequence of stationary fields made by the separate coils as they are energized in the rotational sequence. The fields themselves do not rotate. Tesla used 4 coils driven by 2-phase AC in his demonstration to produce the "rotating" total field, but the field no more rotates than would LEDs blinking rapidly in a circular sequence.

ETA: Tom Valone did a very interesting experiment that he talks about in the Homopolar Handbook. He actually mounted a simple LED voltmeter arrangement directly to the disk of a homopolar dynamo, connected at the center and the edge. He found that when the voltmeter rotated along with the disk, he could detect no voltage generated. But when the voltmeter was stationary in the laboratory reference frame, connected by the usual radial and axial brushes, he did detect voltage from the rotating dynamo.