• It would work if the repulsion/attraction only went in 1 direction. But since it goes both ways, they just cancel out.

    Conversely, the fan version of this idea (fan blowing into a sail) does actually work. But it’s nowhere near as efficient as simply turning the fan away from the sail to push you the normal way.

  • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Did you try flipping the magnet over? If you put the two north ends together they’ll repel instead of attract.

    • notarobot@lemmy.zip
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      4 hours ago

      The beauty is that you can make the mental gymnastics to make it work both ways.

      If they are opposite, the magnet attracts the car which moves the magnet away creating infinite motion

      If they are the same, the magnet is repelled by the car, moving it away, moving the car forward creating infinite motion

      You can even do mental tricks to make the contraption go backwards: Opposites: car attacks magnet which moves the car backwards Same: magnet reppels the car which moves the contraption backwards

  • xploit@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The wire/metal holding it needs to be springy and bobbing back and forth to generate the momentum, duh… Half-assed implementation I say.

    • kubica@fedia.io
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      8 hours ago

      I still hold feelings against the force range being so short. Too close and the wire bends. Too far and there is barely any attraction…

      Ugh, I just want to break physics, let me be.

  • OpenStars@piefed.social
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    9 hours ago

    Excellent! It is always nice to see people asking questions - the journey towards the answer should prove most enlightening! :-D

    • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I am pretty sure the other guy is talking nonsense and he kinda didn’t explain anything, its basically an atom with such a subatomic structure where there are more electrons on one side than the other, making that side more negative! The whole deposit is made up of atoms facing the same way!

      https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQ7plIgcsKhof-nwcD7OcmJvJcNqtpjmpJjTA&usqp=CAU

      https://www.coolmagnetman.com/images/maghow23.jpg

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      8 hours ago

      Real, totally heavily simplified answer. All atoms could be magnets, but most don’t have a force because the electron orbitals aren’t out enough. In fact just about everything can be explained by what the electron orbitals are doing. Even why the chair you’re sitting in feels solid. It’s the orbitals. See Richard Feynman's bit on magnets and the deeper lesson on knowing the right questions to ask.

      • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        No, atoms with a symmetrical subatomic structure could never be magnets! And what would be the point of somehow enlarging the electrons orbit? You surely know a magnet needs a positive pole!

        You are also definitely wrong about your third statement!You could never explain anything based on just the electron cloud, much less physics; a whole scientific field that generally works with the atomic core

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          3 hours ago

          Missed the first sentence I guess. It’s why I included the video for a much better, although also simplified and incomplete answer, and he says why.

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 hours ago

    need two separate vehicles and two magnets, one weaker then the other

    so the weaker one will repell the other and it will kick forward moving the other forward and rinse and repeat at a sonic speed

    thats gotta generate some kinda motion

    • msprout@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      This is basically how a rail cannon coil gun works, just with electromagnets that can reverse their polarity.

      It’s a powerful way to accelerate anything — I think it’s most famously used in those types of metal roller coasters that start you at a flat-with-the-ground angle, and then just fuckin launch you up a ramp to 45° with electromagnets. The issue is that you need a fuckton of energy to do that.

      What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

      • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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        7 hours ago

        That’s not how a railgun works, that’s how a coilgun works. Railguns create a loop of electric current that flows into one “wire” (the rail), through the projectile into the other wire, and back down to the starting point again, this configuration creates a force that pushes the projectile down the rails

        • msprout@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Ah, I appreciate the correction. I’m not an engineer but the youngest cousin of a clan of them, so I just got the highlights of the true evil genius shit. :p