Electromagnetic motor using battery and magnet?

Gytax

I've been wondering how does this motor work (if it is not hoax in the first place) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOdboRYf1hM

I was thinking about Ampere's force but apparently it doesn't really have an affect here. Any ideas?

mfb

You have a radial current flow (moving charges) and a magnetic field perpendicular to that.

Gytax

How can the magnetic field be perpendicular to the current flow?

mfb

As far as I can see, the magnetic field is vertical (or at least it has a vertical component), while current flow is horizontal. In particular, the radial component of the current flow in the vertical component of the magnetic field will give a torque.