• SteveDinn@lemmy.ca
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    30 days ago

    If you fired a gun past an MRI machine, could it conceivably catch the bullets? I am currently assuming that significant deflection is absolutely possible with such a powerful magnet.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      30 days ago

      Bullets are seldom made of iron though; they’re usually lead sometimes jacketed with copper, so they’re not magnetic. Conductive, but not magnetic.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        30 days ago

        Traveling through that strong of a magnetic field, that would definitely generate eddy currents. Like dropping a magnet down a brass plate causes it to move very slowly because the magnetic field moving induces current in the plate and the current creates a counter magnetic field. My instinct is that it would just slow it down, But that MRI is spinning magnets. Maybe it just slows down a little and is it noticeable, maybe it spins it while it’s slowing it down and amplifies the minute drop due to gravity. Too bad MythBusters are gone. There’s not many people out there funded well enough to test shooting bullets through an MRI machine.

        • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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          30 days ago

          Wait if the bullet is generating Eddy current can we get electric bullets by shooting bullets through an MRI like shooting an arrow through fire to get a flaming arrow.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            30 days ago

            The bullet would not be generating an eddy current.

            The eddy currents are induced in the bullet by the magnetic fields as it passes through.

            It’s like a generator’s coil that doesn’t have anything attached to it. Because there’s nowhere for it to go, the eddy currents just dissipate when it leaves the magnetic field.