If Cars Had Magnets: What Would Happen?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores a hypothetical scenario involving cars equipped with large electromagnets and the implications of their interaction, specifically whether they would repel each other when moving at high speeds. The conversation touches on theoretical considerations, practical limitations, and the nature of magnetic fields in this context.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants propose that if two cars had large electromagnets with like poles, they would repel each other when accelerated toward one another.
  • Others question the size and power requirements of the magnets, suggesting that while it might be theoretically possible to prevent a collision, practical challenges exist in generating sufficient magnetic fields and fitting them into cars.
  • One participant describes the interaction as akin to driving into a thick gel, indicating that the experience of deceleration would differ from a solid impact.
  • Another participant notes that the effectiveness of the magnetic repulsion would depend on the relative velocity of the cars and the strength of the magnets used.
  • A challenge is raised regarding the configuration of the magnets, specifically the need for all cars to have the same magnetic pole facing outward, questioning how to manage the opposing pole.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views, with some agreeing on the theoretical possibility of magnetic repulsion while others highlight practical limitations and unresolved questions about the implementation and configuration of the magnets. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the feasibility of such a system.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on the strength and configuration of the magnets, as well as the assumptions about the cars' velocities and the nature of magnetic fields. There are also unresolved mathematical considerations regarding the forces involved.

Chemicist
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Hypothetically, if two cars had large electromagnets with like-magnetic poles, would they repel if accelerated toward each other at a high rate of speed?

Just one of those thoughts you randomly make up in your head.
 
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How 'large' are we talking here? Hypothetically you could get magnets powerful enough to prevent two cars moving toward each other from crashing.

Practicality-wise, it would take a pretty large amount of power to produce a field strong enough to actually stop them. I'm sure there exists something strong enough but fitting it on/in the car might be the problem.
 
denjay said:
How 'large' are we talking here? Hypothetically you could get magnets powerful enough to prevent two cars moving toward each other from crashing.

Practicality-wise, it would take a pretty large amount of power to produce a field strong enough to actually stop them. I'm sure there exists something strong enough but fitting it on/in the car might be the problem.

Yeah I wasn't necessarily talking about this being a possibility - just wanted to know IF a magnetic field could theoretically become powerful enough to stop cars from colliding.
 
Chemicist said:
Yeah I wasn't necessarily talking about this being a possibility - just wanted to know IF a magnetic field could theoretically become powerful enough to stop cars from colliding.

Well then it absolutely can happen. It wouldn't be like hitting a brick wall, it would be more like driving into some kind of gel that got thicker and thicker as you went. Mathematically, being slowed by a magnetic field is different than slowing down through thick gel but the idea is the roughly the same.
 
Thanks for the link, Danger!
 
It would be dependent on the relative velocity of the two cars and the magnetic power of the magnets used. If you were to use low strength magnets I'd advise a slow relative velocity but if you were using stronger magnets such as neodymium magnets (and enough of it) you could use a relatively large velocity. Hope this helped.
 
There is one problem with this scheme... For obvious reasons you would want the whole surface of all cars to have the same pole (eg Let's all agree on North). Where would you put the south pole?

I don't think you can make a sphere that's north on the outside and south on the inside.
 

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