Random Science Questions

March 12th, 2008 by Potato

As a grad student with an eclectic science background, I get asked a lot of random science questions. Today, John said that I should have a whole website where I just answer them. Already having a website, I instead decided to just add a category to my already prolific array of post categories where I can give them a go. If you have any questions you’d like me to take a stab at, feel free to ask in the comments or fire me off an email. So, here’s John P’s question:

“So, you know those experiments where you can split water with a high magnetic field of 11 Tesla or so, the Moses effect, how high a field would you need to just totally rip apart your body?”

Well, that effect of magnetic fields on the diamagnetic water molecules in your body is actually fairly weak. Even at those very high field strengths the force of the effect was just enough to counter balance gravity (likewise for the levitating frog experiment). Since our bodies are well equipped to handle forces on the same order of magnitude as gravity, it’s really not a concern. (After all, we don’t fall apart when we flip around and stand on our heads, or get some G-forces on a rollercoaster!)

Comments are closed.