Have you heard of ferrofluid? Ferrofluids are colloidal liquids made of nanoscale ferromagnetic, or ferrimagnetic, particles suspended in a carrier fluid (usually an organic solvent or water), and they become strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field.
There's loads of videos of these on YouTube, but I like this one in particular. Fascinating stuff.
It's also called magneto hydrodynamics, and it CAN propel a ship... :-)
ReplyDeleteToys we get to play with deep in the research laboratories and call it work.
ReplyDeleteQ
http://apexmagnets.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=3
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to get some and play with it, with my 3 yr old daughter.