TESTING KNOWING THERE ARE MAGNETIC HOTSPOTS

Now that I have been a bit enlightened about the magnetic hot spots under the floor I have a strategy to continue testing the permanent magnet devices in spite of them.

Once I have identified a hot spot, whether it is a nail under the floor or a beam or some source of magnetism, I will try to start over it and see if I can maneuver away from it. Or I will start somewhere a little away from it if the attraction to the hot spot is too strong to maneuver away from and see how long I can avoid the model being drawn into the hot spot.

Identifying a hot spot isn't all that difficult. First of all the device works too well to be true but keeps going in the same direction. Granted that can be difficult since some of the devices can only go in one direction. Next use the magnetometer. In my latest informal experiment the magnetometer read over 10 uT higher on the Z axis over the hot spot. It is difficult to simply scan a whole area for a hot spot but it is possible with patience also.

A device with permanent magnets that are used to swing against a weight in the water tank in an aluminum pan should be able to go in any direction. I needed to identify which side of the device rotates with more mass. If the center of rotation is shorter on one side that is usually the side with the greater mass and where the most centrifugal force will be as it swings side to side like a pendulum.

So below is a 4 minute video of two trials. In the first 2 minutes of the video the model can be seen to drift without being maneuvered right into the hot spot from a standstill to a speed of 4 inches per minute approximately. This of course is a false positive result.

In the second 2 minutes of the video the water tank is in the exact same location with the hot spot in the same place as well. The model is starting from a standstill and then maneuvered in a pendulum motion and can be seen to not move into the hot spot. This shows that the maneuvering model has achieved a bit of thrust. Of course there are other factors that would remain to be ruled out for example slip stick effect.

Originally I tried to start in the hot spot and maneuver out of it but the model didn't have enough power to do so, hence I settled for simply staying away from the hot spot. The hot spot is in the north east part of the water tank or the lower left part of the screen. The model consists of a servo that controls the rotation of the stacks of neodymium magnets. It is actually an IR remote control toy robot with the magnets taped to some craft sticks to its top. When the north end of the stacks of magnets points east the aluminum pan rotates counterclockwise and vise a versa. The weight at the other end of the 10 inch aluminum pan is clay that is a blue color.

Please observe:

Measurements with cellphone Magnetometer and scale and observations of large compass floating in water

Measurements with cellphone Magnetometer and digital kitchen food scale and observations of large compass floating in water

      I got a few cellphone Magnetometer apps to make some rough measurements.

      The units of measure of magnetism are microTesla or uT. One uT equals 0.01 Gauss.
At my location in the state of NY the Earth's field is 52 uT. However this is the entire force referred to as F and its vector mostly points into the ground at about a 66 degree angle. So the actual force pointing north is 19 uT or what is referred to as the X measurement.

      Before I go into farther detail let me give my results. The results were that the Earth's magnetic field was powerful enough to push or pull a magnet by attraction or repulsion with enough force to make a little boat travel in a water tank.

      Why this is not immediately obvious is because the magnet must be oriented in such a direction that it does not turn freely like a compass and align with Earth's magnetic poles at which position it will have no push or pull.

      Let me use the Levitron toy as an example of this. The top on the classic version of the Levitron weighs 60 grams approximately. Because due to the gyroscope effect of the top spinning it is able to push away from the magnet in the base with enough force against gravity to hover over 1 inch high. But if it is not spinning than it will simply line up with the north and south poles of the magnet in the base and sit on its side with no evident sign of propulsion against gravity.

      I took one N42 0.5 inch diameter by 0.25 inch length neodymium magnet and measured from various distances in uT on the Magnetometer. At 12 inches it measured approximately 2 uT. At 3 inches it measured 225 uT.

      Next I set up a scale with a similar magnet on it and held the N42 over it to see when it would repel at 1 gram approximately. That distance was 3 inches approximately.

      Next I set up an aluminum pan filled with water with a Styrofoam disc floating in it. I placed a stack of 14 of the N42 magnets along a diameter of the Styrofoam disc in effect creating a giant compass. This pointed north. I measured a rough estimate of when the Styrofoam disc would move as I moved an N42 magnet towards it from various points around it.

      The Styrofoam disc floating in the water with the 14 N42 magnets on it rotated a little and then either moved towards the magnet I held or away from it very visibly from distances over 12 inches.

      So for starters we can conclude that a magnetic force of only 2 uT is enough to move the magnetic boat through the water.

      Next we can conclude that Earth's magnetic force since it is 10 times that amount of course can move a properly designed boat.

      I won't say how fast or slowly but will state that it will apply a force that causes continuous acceleration taking into account other factors such as friction in the water and nearby magnetic or ferrous objects.

      Now since we have observed that 225 uT presses 1 gram force to the magnet on the scale we need to somehow extrapolate what that gram force is at 19 uT. (Earth's magnetism at my location)

      I am just going to take a guess that the relationship between microTesla and gram force is directly proportional. So since 19/225 is approximately 0.1 or a little less that is the amount of gram force the Earth's magnet (magnetic field) is pushing against the Styrofoam magnetic boat which is constructed with 14 stacked N42 0.5 inch diameter by 0.25 inch neodymium magnets.