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Went to University of Illinois Engineering Open House — Parallax Forums

Went to University of Illinois Engineering Open House

Don MDon M Posts: 1,653
edited 2012-03-10 17:11 in General Discussion
A good friend of mine invited me along on a trip to the university yesterday. Had a wonderful time time viewing the various exhibits and projects shown by the students. There are some rather bright young adults there. Only noticed one project that was using a basic stamp board otherwise Arduino seemed to be the platform of choice. I questioned a few if they had heard of the Propeller to which the answer was no.

In case you happen to live within driving distance from the school they are open again today.

http://eoh.ec.illinois.edu

Comments

  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,653
    edited 2012-03-10 16:34
    One of the neatest things I saw was a demonstration of Lenz's law and eddy current using a strong magnet through a copper pipe. I went out and purchased a copper pipe today to show the neighbor boy whom I've been helping with projects. I'ts so simple yet dramatic.

    Here's a video in case you've never seen this demonstrated before: http://blog.makezine.com/2011/12/14/dropping-a-magnet-through-a-copper-pipe
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2012-03-10 17:11
    Don M wrote: »
    One of the neatest things I saw was a demonstration of Lenz's law and eddy current using a strong magnet through a copper pipe. I went out and purchased a copper pipe today to show the neighbor boy whom I've been helping with projects. I'ts so simple yet dramatic.

    Here's a video in case you've never seen this demonstrated before: http://blog.makezine.com/2011/12/14/dropping-a-magnet-through-a-copper-pipe

    Firstly use a _thick_-walled copper or aluminium tube which is only slightly bigger that the cylindrical magnet and it will go even slower (2 cm/s perhaps). And if you use a cylindrical magnet that can't tumble because its large enough, then a slot cut along part of the tube will stop the eddy currents and the magnet will go fast where the slot is - this configuration causes eddy currents around the tube.

    Big neodymium magnets just dragged along a slab of copper or aluminium is dramatic enough - the drag force goes up as the square of velocity so trying to move it fast and the force is high. IIRC its also proportional to square of field-strength and to the specific conductivity.

    Take care with large neo magnets though, severe injury is entirely possible, once saw photo of smashed fingers from a guy who wasn't taking care with large magnets...
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