well ive been trying to figure out an application that would exploit the unusual characteristics of ferro fluid, and this is what i came up with
if we have a lever with two containers on the end, half way filled with ferro fluid, and we bend the lever, giving it somewhere between 1.5 - 3 degrees,
so we have already figured out exactly how much of the fluids weight it takes to break free of the magnetic field under its own weight (and thats how much we put in each container)
the "longer" the containers are, the better this effect would work, for concept only i made the proportions in my drawing a bit off so you could see everything better
with the picture as starting position, assuming the axle is locked, the fluid that is near the magnet will cling to the side of the wall, while the other side the fluid that is not exposed is still spread the length of the container on the lever
this causes a torque, and we release the axle, it gives just enough momentum to lift the other side, exposing it to the magnet
while said side is exposed to magnet, other side;s fluid has dispersed to the width of the container, starting the process on the other side all over again
most likely this would work better if the containers were on slip rigs that were weighted on the bottom to keep them "upright"
the drawing was very quick and done on a laptop (as all of my drawings are) so it might be a bit rough but its extremely simple
let me know what you think, i think horse shoe magnets would work the best for this as they have a space alloted for the container to go in between
if anyone out there has any, let me know if you try this
il try to get a better drawing of what the actual version would most likely look like,
until next time...
edit;:::
pic added
Ferrofluid is interesting to work with. However, something happens when it is in the presence of a magnetic field. The force that makes the fluid to flow towards the magnet will just increase as it all lumps together near the magnet (Still liquid though). This will focus even more mass and also more attraction near the magnet. When the lever is positioned with one side at ground level and the other side at the magnet level, it will most probably stay in that position.
Vidar
I would try to get it to work with solid pms. The liquid rolling up on the edges will tend to jam the fulcrum between the fluid and the magnet. If the fluid or the pm drops into a channel cut in the ramp just before it gets real close to the pm and flows or rolls back to the bottom of the ramp outside the influence of the field you could have yourself a perpectual flow of the fluid or roller. Up the ramp down the holes back to the base of the ramp repeat.
i don't know how i would make one with solid pms
i guess the theory is that if there is a strength to mass ratio that would cause it to break its hold
if i used solid pms i would use a magnet with a lot of mass and little strength, one that cannot support its own weight
if it can't support its own weight, maybe the lateral motion of the pull will be just enough to move the magnet off balance
so i guess my theory is that we use enough ferro fluid to "saturate" the magnetic field, so there is still some fluid in the bottom of the container, and once we found how strong that is, we can add that much weight in fluid
if we stop the axle and let the magnet pull a portion of the fluid to the side, the rest of the fluid not affected by it will pull it down when we release the axle