Howard Johnson Replication Tube Claim

[AquariuZ]

Hey.... I just found something strange! No that's not it.

I was just playing with some magnets and a huge aluminum sheet I had and was sliding them down the sheet near vertical as they move really slow and it looks strange. Then I found if you keep making it more vertical sometimes the magnet seems to fall away instead of sliding, but then I discovered that it was because I didn't always use the same side of the magnet and I figured it was just the magnet so I tried several magnets and they  were all the same, one side would not hold and fall away.

It seems the north pole would drag fine but the south pole would fall away while dragging down the sheet. In every case!

I don't know guys, Mylow said only one pole would work, this is getting creepy.

Eddy currents?

[slipstream]

@ ALL
Quite the response to the plans i made, 118 downloads in less than 24 hours...

I've revised the plans to version 1.1 to include the data requested.
The latest set is available free from my private ftp:

98.210.103.190:55456
user: guest
password: guest

they're still rough, but it compiles a lot of the measurement info.

[lumen]

I did more testing on this and found that it's the south pole that is dragging harder than the north pole and that's why the north would slide, because the south was dragging to hard and causes the magnet to flip over.

If you lay the magnet down on an aluminum plate, with north on the right and south on the left, it will slide down curving left toward the south pole edge because it is dragging harder to the aluminum plate than the north pole.

This don't make sense because it's just the same field lines going through the aluminum plate. Why would the field direction make a difference?

[TinselKoala]

I did more testing on this and found that it's the south pole that is dragging harder than the north pole and that's why the north would slide, because the south was dragging to hard and causes the magnet to flip over.

If you lay the magnet down on an aluminum plate, with north on the right and south on the left, it will slide down curving left toward the south pole edge because it is dragging harder to the aluminum plate than the north pole.

This don't make sense because it's just the same field lines going through the aluminum plate. Why would the field direction make a difference?

That is fascinating, and the only explanation I can come up with (got magnets here but have to wait till Monday for the Al at work) is that the axis of magnetization might not be the same as the physical axis of the magnet. Cylinder magnets? Could you post a picture so I'll know which ones to use?
Do you have any field viewing film? How about a file and some old bolts, to make some iron filings? Mix them in a small bottle of glycerin or sugar water, hold the magnet up to the bottle...

Either that or you live waaaay up north in Canada.

[Justalabrat]

This one is important.

Mylows tips on placing magnets

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mylow_magmo/message/1305