Re: [FT] Magnetic Bases

On Mon, 26 Jul 1999 09:50:23 -0400, "Buddy Chamberlain" writes:
>I dunno about the pen, and I am far from a physicist, but if you put a
ring
>of powerful magnets on say, an AOL coaster, all with the same pole
facing
>upward, with a little help from some super glue, and then another
magnet on
>the ship you wanted to float, with the same pole facing downward,
wouldn't
>it sit in the "trough" of the ring?  I don't have any magnets on me, or
I'd
>go home and try this tonight, but from what I know about them, that
should
>work, right?  If it did, you could make all your major FT ships
"floaties."
>:o)
>
>God bless,
>- Buddy

I'd expect to have some issues with the center magnet flipping over
and being pulled toward the ring magnets.  Have to be bottom heavy.

It would also probably be pretty hard to get the center hole to be
stable enough.	My experience with these magnetic floaters is they
tend to be pretty unstable.  Small knocks or pushes could send the
whole construct tumbling down.

But, if it did work it would look really kewl. :)

-=- Matthew L. Seidl		email: seidl@cs.colorado.edu		
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