'Hey Bill Nye, Can We Use Giant Magnets to Build a Space Elevator?' #TuesdaysWithBill
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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? Do you want to ask Bill a question for a future "Tuesdays with Bill?" Click here to learn how to submit: (http://goo.gl/Joiqzo). Read more at BigThink.com: http://bigthink.com/videos/bill-nye-on-using-magnets-for-space-travel Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink 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.
Comments
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Nick is a babe
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I'd like to see a "railgun" method, where we shoot a pod with boosters and safety gear in the direction we want, then control them from a distance. Granted, this method isn't safe.. At all. But still, very fun c:
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Nah, let's rather build a ground-based railgun!!!
I bet Nikola fucking Tesla shot all kinds of shit into space back in his days!!! lol -
What if you took that earth piston idea that weighs a bunch and on the way up have sort of a locking mechanism almost like a roller coaster click so if it doesn't make it up in the first shot it locks in place.
And use the renewable energy during the day. To pull said piston up and when it's night . Release the piston to then use that water pressure through the turbine to push what ever it was up the "elevator" shaft -
Accelerating protons needs so much energy in the CERN because it gets nearly to the speed of light, where the mass of a proton goes to infinity.
However magnets aren't strong enough to bring up something like space shuttles in the space. -
I have one thing to say, rail gun. Those use magnets in stages to propel an object. Just hold on tight!
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Hey if the videos don't interest you, than why not watch something else?
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Electromagnetic force is inversely proportional to the SQUARE of the distance, not CUBE.
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Bill Nye looks dead inside from having to answer such incredibly inane questions.
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Ever eard of Maglev? Trains that travel with the use of magnets... Just build it vertically. #questionanswered
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release the anti-gravitics problem solved
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can;t we use vertical rail guns with booster along the way ?
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He's basically describing a giant railgun (which might cause issues around the g-forces). StarTram is a legit proposal to do this.
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we should use matter-antimatter fueled propulsion
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in my opinion making A SPACE elevator is to much to ask but a regular elevator, in my opinion would work
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So, just getting my head around this.
The point. I'm trying to work out the point, the reason for a space elevator.
We take a craft to the top of the atmosphere and let it float off effortlessly in space.
That would eliminate the need to fly from the ground, which, would save money in fuel. -
Unlike CERN, to launch a projectile to space we don't need the object to move near the speed of light...
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Bill nye is cool. Carry on, Nick. ;) Good answer to that question.
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The tube of the space elevator could propel the elevator car up through the atmosphere using magnetic force could it not? With the same concept as a magnetic acceleration cannon.
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I smiled even though it was wrong. I liked the creative aspect behind the idea.
Finding practical ways with creative inputs can lead into an interesting future.
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