If you had a strong enough magnet, would it be possible to rip someone’s blood right out of their body due to the iron in the hemoglobin? Or would a magnetic force of that magnitude rip apart a city like a nuclear weapon, meaning you’d probably die of debris, explosions, and gravity-warp before the blood extraction got you?
No. And no.
I recall watching a 16mm film about such as thing back in H.S. You remember those wonderful physics films I’m sure. They had a vial of blood suspending on a string, balanced somehow. After a progression of magnets, a large electromagnet finally pulled the vial of blood toward it.
Now I saw that over twenty years ago, and the film was probably made in the mid to early sixties, so perhaps the physics has changed since.
On a side note, if anyone has old 16mm physics films, I’d be interested in hearing about them, as it is something I collect for fun.
I’m tempted to agree with Goose.
The strongest magnet I can think of is one that is in a MRI. Those things don’t even cause a nose bleed. Also the EMP from the detonation of a nuclear bomb isn’t supposed to harm people, and it’s stronger than an MRI.
-Beeblebrox
“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Physics doesn’t change that much anymore, unless it’s Einstein ammending Newton. 
Oh, for heaven’s sakes. :rolleyes:
http://www.csicop.org/si/9807/magnet.html
No.
And no.
I’m going back to work now…
P.S. to NotMrKnowItAll: this is a website devoted to Fighting Ignorance. I submit that you are misremembering or misinterpreting what you may have seen.
Well if not blood, then something in the human body interracts with a magnetic field. Years ago I worked in a physics lab that was building an experiment for the Pioneer spacecraft. One of my jobs was to measure the residual magnetic fields of various parts for this experiment. I did this in a specially shielded room with an extremely sensitive device that meassures magnetic fields. I found that my own body had a residual magnetic field that could be detected with this setup.
Duck Duck Goose,
I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to misrepresent that film I saw. I resent the implication that I misremembered it however. I, one of those stupid A/V people, saw it many times. As for if it was proof of ferromagnatism in hemoglobin, I doubt it. probably an imperfect power supply sending a bit of A/C through the solenoid, inducing a B field via Faraday’s law (blood cell are nice little toroids you must admit). Anyway, in retrospect, I too, am quite annoyed by all these magnet wearing idiots. If I had know this was such a touchy subject, I would have wisely advoided it.
I really was hoping someone would have that particular film, so I could maybe, possibly, add it to my collection. Collectors are goofy sometimes.
Forgive me for sending you on a web-crusade
peace?
Oh Dammit,
A solenoid that big would have been a great inductor, so it probably would have choked off any variability in the B field. I don’t have a clue what was ferromagnetic…
I would guess that research and industry uses much more powerful magnets then MRI’s. IIRC some research magnets require you to remove any metal (watch, buttons, zipper) before you go near them in the off position.
It’s just that I know actual people who believe this:
http://www.stuckonyou.com/code/template.ghc?direct=howitworks
There’s more, but you get the general drift. :rolleyes:
So you say “blood is magnetic” and I…
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Your body has an electrical current to it. Your body has iron in it. Iron + electricity = magnetism
–Tim
I don’t think iron has anything to do with it. An electric current will produce a magnetic field by itself. In fact, any moving, charged particle will produce a magnetic field.
Live by the magnet, die by the magnet. That’s my motto.
Anyone interested in a bracelet?
Extremely strong magnetic fields can levitate small living things, such as a small frog and a grasshopper, with no apparent harm. You can see mpegs of this here: http://www.anomalous-images.com/messages/726.html
Honest question: Why are blood cells nice little toroids?
Ok…that made my night. A floating frog. It doesn’t get much better than that. 
The nearest I can get to harm by magnetic fields is the damage caused by lightening strikes.
You can be killed by lightening strikes if you have been
1 Struck directly
2 Struck by splashover arcs, like if you were sheltering near a tree and it travels down and an arc emanates from said tree into you.
3 Struck by the ground wave differencial, this is more serious for large four legged animals such as cows where a concentric field of electric charge exists around the groundstrike point and the differance between front and back legs can be in excess of 110V which can be enough to stop its heart. It is possible for this differencial to be greater over a shorter distance, like between your feet but the path taken is not likely to stop your heart though it might just tingle the naughty bits somewhat.
4 This is the one that relates to the OP, you need not have direct passage of current at all, instead the current can be induced through the body by the changing magnetic field that accomapnies a lightening strike. This can be a significant current since induced current is proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic field, in other words how fast it rises and falls, which in the case of lightening can be very fast, in the order of 10[sup]-9[/sup] seconds and the large change of current ([sup]dI[/sup]/[sub]dT[/sub])
There was a case of four golfers in the US who were victims of a nearby strike, 3 were hit by splash arcs and survived but the fourth was not hit at all but yet his heart stopped and unfortunately he died.
This prompted further investigation, and other cases of the deaths of young fit backpackers out on high ground with no marks upon them were further reinvestigated.
It now seems that the heart has a more vulnerable period in its cycle called the re-polarisation time or T[sub]2[/sub].
If there should be even a fairly minor shock to the heart at this time then there is a strong possiblity it will stop.
The induced currents due to the magnetic field caused by lightening, although relatively small, were badly timed as far as that golfer was concerned, a few milliseconds later and he would probably have survived.