Bill Nye answers a question submitted by Nick: is it possible to take two giant magnets and use the repulsion force between the two to lift objects into space?
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Transcript - Nick: Nick here. I was wondering if it’s possible to take two giant magnets and use the repulsion force between the two to lift objects into space or can we set up stages along the way up and how that attraction and repulsion force send a type of space elevator up to the moon or anywhere we want to go. Let me know what you think.
Bill Nye: Nick. It’s Nick for sure. And it’s magnets to create space elevator. So do I just start talking? We’re ready to go? Nick, Nick, Nick. This is an interesting question. Let me say though starting out we all when you play with magnets and you feel the repulsive force it seems strong. But notice that it acts over a very short distance. Just nominally it goes – it’s not perfect but you can estimate it by saying it goes off as the cube of the distance. So if you have magnets this far apart and you make them twice that far apart they only haven an eighth as much umph. So using a magnet to push things up as high as the atmosphere would take an enormously strong magnet and where would that energy come from? Read Full Transcript Here: http://goo.gl/uAQnVM.
