Magnets

[anonymous]

You know how magenets have force. Like poles repel, Opposite poles attract.

I want to make this really cool gizmo, that uses these permanent mangnetic properties/forces to spin something continuously. What are some problems I am facing with achieving this.

I can use multiple magnets, each segment has more mangentic force pulling the steel object around, but it stops after one revolution, a little momentum is needed to get it to spin again.

I am thinking someone could design some space age steel object that causes the magnetic field to keep spinning the steel object on an axis as though it is caught in the field and spins.


You know it will change the world.
I saw someone with such a gizmo, he tryed to fool me, but I know it was a wind up toy, he even pointed it north to appear smart.

[GAHD]

try looking into electric motors. They acheive this same function by mechanically switching the fields position based on the position of the free-spinning counter magnets.

[Bo]

well you're right that this invention would change the world, however it is done already some 100 (?? naive guess) years ago. As far as i understand you: you're talking about an ordinary electric motor.
for some explanation on how this works: see e.g http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/HSCmotors.html (and there's probably a lot more info on the web)
Bo