Mysterious Reaction to Small Magnet: Investigating an Unexplained Phenomenon

[hagopbul]

TL;DR Summary

a reaction between magnetic field and human body

Hello All :

Good day :

i found a small magnet and it reacted strangely with my body , the magnet is 5 mm in diameter , and less than 4 mm thickness , i rob it few times on my left hand vain it stuck , which i do not understand why !

i checked on other people about 3 one of them had the same reaction the other 2 did not have that reaction
i don't know the strength of the magnetic field nor the material of the magnet

the vain that i talk about is the upper part of the hand not the palm

i tried to look it up on the internet no reasonable explanation , the vain is 4 or 5 mm wideBest regards
Hagop

 

[berkeman]

Most likely it was some skin oil thing.

Can you reproduce this after you wash your hands and arms well with soap and water? If so, can you please post a video of this? If you were a newbie posting this, it would of course get deleted right away as nonsense, but since you are an established PF member, let's have a look...

 

[BillTre]

Do the tests @berkeman said.

I dounbt it has anything to do with magnetism, some more possible tests:
I would also be interested in if the rubbed skin could be separated from the rubbed magnet (I am thinking maybe a static charge thing?).
If you do the rubbing, but put a naive (unrubbed) magnet on the rubbed skin, or a rubbed magent on an unrubbed skin.
Do larger and stronger magnets work similarly?

 

[sysprog]

Just throwing this possibly irrelevant thing in: whereas gravitational attraction varies in inverse proportion as the square on the distance, magnetic attraction varies inversely as the cube on the distance.

 

[aguarneri]

Red cells in blood contain iron, which material is attracted by magnets; could it be an explanation ?
I have been told a story in western France : a man that was there for holidays had to be operated for a blood clot in one leg . A local countryside PhD of his friends stuck two magnets with adhesive tape on the vein before and after the clot and this clot disappeared in a matter of days without a surgical operation. I did not witnessed this story by myself, so I don't know if I can believe it.

 

[jim mcnamara]

You really should consider a literature search rather than anecdotes.

Magnets used to improve post-surgery healing in patients, animal model test:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2490801/

Conclusions: An externally applied, low-power, static magnetic field increases the rate of secondary healing. Review of the literature reveals conflicting evidence regarding the use of magnetic energy to aid the healing of bone, tendon, and skin. Level I studies are lacking and difficult to execute but are needed to define conclusively the role of magnets in clinical practice.

FWIW: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4629386/ History from 1936: Coryell and Pauling investigate metalloproteins response to magnets. Deoxyhemoglobin (venous blood) showed a response.

In other words, "used" hemoglobin may react to the presence of magnets. So the OP was investigating the effect of a magnet on a vein which has a high level of deoxyhemoglobin compared to arterial blood. He claimed the vein does respond to magnets.

I do not know how large the OP's response was.

Fair warning - if members start posting weird claims the thread will be shut down...

 

[aguarneri]

You really should consider a literature search rather than anecdotes.

Magnets used to improve post-surgery healing in patients, animal model test:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2490801/
FWIW: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4629386/ History from 1936: Coryell and Pauling investigate metalloproteins response to magnets. Deoxyhemoglobin (venous blood) showed a response.

In other words, "used" hemoglobin may react to the presence of magnets. So the OP was investigating the effect of a magnet on a vein which has a high level of deoxyhemoglobin compared to arterial blood. He claimed the vein does respond to magnets.

I do not know how large the OP's response was.

Fair warning - if members start posting weird claims the thread will be shut down...

I must admit I am not a scientist but a plain technician in electronics. I am simply very curious of all scientific discoveries in all domains and this site is really interesting even for people that don't have the background to understand in details. Thank you very much anyways for taking the time of providing these articles in your answer.

 

[pinball1970]

I must admit I am not a scientist but a plain technician in electronics. I am simply very curious of all scientific discoveries in all domains and this site is really interesting even for people that don't have the background to understand in details. Thank you very much anyways for taking the time of providing these articles in your answer.

Probably just friction. Ever put your beer on a coaster you take a drink and coaster comes with it?
Also
you can climb a cliff just by using your hands and feet spread out, its a difficult technique not one I would want to try
https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/what-is-friction-climbing

Lastly try talc - Your post reminds me of James Randi

https://boingboing.net/2021/06/11/the-amazing-randi-debunked-sweaty-magnetic-people.html

 

[Vanadium 50]

@berkeman had it. It's skin oil, not snake oil.

 

[Drakkith]

Red cells in blood contain iron, which material is attracted by magnets; could it be an explanation ?
I have been told a story in western France : a man that was there for holidays had to be operated for a blood clot in one leg . A local countryside PhD of his friends stuck two magnets with adhesive tape on the vein before and after the clot and this clot disappeared in a matter of days without a surgical operation. I did not witnessed this story by myself, so I don't know if I can believe it.

Certain stainless steels, which contain primarily iron, are not magnetic, so the presence of iron itself means little to whether or not a material is magnetic.

As to the story, it's probably false. A blood clot is composed of a large number of complex molecules in the form of whole blood cells, platelets, fibrin, and potentially other blood components that happen to get stuck in the clot as it forms, such as sugars, cholesterols, hormones, etc. There's no known reason why a magnetic field would cause this complex structure to dissolve or breakdown. Any interaction should take the form of a pulling force, which could be extremely dangerous if it dislodges the clot of causes it to fragment.

The story is either false or the clot happened to resolve on its own.

 

[hagopbul]

thank you all for your answers
it maybe adhesive materials stuck on the magnet it self if i found any thing strange i will post it with pics and other related information like charts ,
although i was afraid some problem with hemoglobin but to this moments nothing wired yet , no discovery here

Regards
Hagop