University of Maryland Three Meter Experiment

[000vortex]

In Google: Airborne aerial unmanned bulletproof combat drone of monitoring system.

[PsychotronicWar]

Reminded Event Horizon's Black Hole Gate...

[tarasenkogennadiy]

Это ничего не даст, все неправильно, ядро земли состоит из плазмы-типа шаровой молнии после большого взрыва... Дайте мне возможность сделать свой проект, я переверну мир! Тарасенко Геннадий. Генератор Тарасенко, меня легко найти в инете.

[bombaykaizoku]

How do you maintain a solid core? Is it a non-sodium sphere held in place?

[lathropdaniel]

@bombaykaizoku yes, there is a solid stainless steel core held by a stainless steel shaft.

[GreenmeGo]

Wow! so informative

[itsabomberscope]

wunderwaffe die glocke!

[captainparadoxius]

Hm, replicating Earth's magnetic field. A solar wind shield for future cosmonauts, or just a toy for us nerds so we can learn about magnetism? Best yet: a defense against space junk, like meteors that might someday destroy the Earth or telecommunication satelites that already are.

[VoteORquitCRYIN]

Above you mention that sodium is the most electrically conductive liquid. What about mixtures of several liquified elements?

I'm curious if you could replace the liquid sodium with a liquid mixture of water, sulfur, and gold. I know these elements mix in our earth, with many other elements like quartz, under great pressures and heat. Would a mixture of liquified sulfer, water, and gold be more electrically conductive than sodium?

It would be more expensive to make for sure.

[VoteORquitCRYIN]

This is AWESOME! Make a bigger one!

Do you think someday in the future we could perfect and refine this kind of technology, on a grand scale, to manipulate magnetic fields in space? How powerful could this technolgy become, theoretically?

[vef444]

So, there is a liquid metal inside and you think that by rotating the liquid metal you will create magnetic field? Am I right?

Does it work?

[imyourhustler]

@dnluce roflmao.

[nfexp]

does it working? did anybody else observed that only planets that have atmosphere have magnetic field too? isnt that weird...solar wind, auroras, plasma , ionosphere ...magnetic field ..nobody?

[thebagpiper]

this is the closest to a time machine we're gonna get ;>)

[captainparadoxius]

@thebagpiper not if the government will let me have some of that damn mendelevium. ( ;

[UncleKennybobs]

13 ton is 13,000 lb.

13,000 kg is 13 tonne.

[bartry666]

@UncleKennybobs Not so: 13 tons IS 13,000 kg in the metric system, which is what scientists use. Tonne is just another way of calling the metric ton.

I think you were thinking of "short ton", however, 13 short ton is 26,000 lb.

(source: google calculator, wikipedia, etc)

[UncleKennybobs]

@bartry666 Completely incorrect even by your own useless sources.

In the United Kingdom, the ton is a unit of measure which, when it ceased to be legal for trade in 1985, was defined in British legislation as being a weight or mass equal to 2,240 pounds (1,016 kg) (avoirdupois pounds).[

[Photonicinduction]

money well spent then?

[hboy007]

13000kg of liquid sodium. Nice! I want so see the results!

[beverding]

I saw this three years from now

[EmeraldAisle]

I knew you'd say that twenty years ago. LOL

[NikoKun]

So how large of a magnetic field does this create?

Could it (or something similar) be used to shield a space-craft from radiation in space, at a low energy consumption, since it's just spinning?

[o8643]

I'm assuming this is in College Park. In which building is this? I want to avoid it while walking to class.

[lathropdaniel]

No worries dude. Driving to campus is more dangerous than this.

[o8643]

Thankfully, I don't drive. Though some of the shuttle drivers make me wish I do.

[alejandro15187]

For some reason I'm scared of that thing.

[HoboMiracleMan]

I only counted two meters..

[Jimmymajesty007]

I haven't seen Gordon Freeman.

[fredfar12]

yes it works

[RexNunc]

So did it work?

Or..

[thecmpguru]

that's gotta be one of the most unsafe things I've seen. Liquid sodium? .6 rev/sec? dear god

[silksword]

Purple stuuf purple stuuuf

[poobearpanda345]

no offence but u are absolutely awfull with the camera.

[m3sca1]

has it been done small scale to begin with?

that thing is huge!

it might try to align itself to the earth as tho its in orbit and rip itself off the mountings

could probably use mercury instead of sodium

[m3sca1]

a 3 axis gimbal would make it somewhat safer and also show the relationship between the earth and that spinning fluid mass thing.

cant wait to see it fired up!

[dnluce]

Needs more cowbell.

[dc0023]

that's exactly what i thought

[420glass]

@dnluce Check out the "60cm Inertial Wave Ramp" video if you want more cowbell LOL

[frizspin175]

so there is a bunch of liquid sodium in it?

[frozenphoenixprod]

This looks like something out of Riven or Myst.

[captainpiccard]

Cool...

[lithiumoxide]

Bomb? Did you even watch the video? Or read the info?

[veigvideos]

Yes, but all about physics and chemical things are very confusing for me, I am not an expert in this... I just wish them the best and they do not get hurt by anything, it looks like dangerous. I would like to know more about it to understand what is happening there but it is not my strong and for sure with my knowledgements I won't understand why happen everything. Anyway I'm sure it is a very interesting thing ad I like to see things like that :)

[lithiumoxide]

Ah ok, sorry for sounding agressive! It's not dangerous at all, it's basically a spinning ball of metal. I'm a scientist myself and considered at one stage running a much smaller version of this to see if it would work.

[veigvideos]

It is really heavy! I think I read something about it makes a magnetic field, it will not damage electronic devices around? The purple light aroudn minute 1:00 is an effect on camera electronics or just light as in a rainbow? If it creates a magnetic field, all the iron pieces around will be attracted by the giant ball, and it could make it all loss of stabilization and fall, no? It looks like pretty heavy!

[n3umh]

It's true that it's heavy, but it's mounted on very good bearings in a strong framework. The magnetic field it creates outside the sphere could take on a wide range of strengths but I'd guess it wouldn't be more than a few hundred times the Earth's field strength, and that's not enough to get ferrous objects airborne ;-). Practically everything within a couple meters of the sphere is bolted down or welded down anyway. The purple light you see is just a flare from the room lights.

[dag22105]

@veigvideos - purple = lens flare.

[cwlists]

I heard about this project on NPR this morning. It's an amazing undertaking! Best of luck cracking the mysteries of planetary magnetic fields!

[gibsonemg]

Why do you use sodium?

[n3umh]

Sodium is the most electrically conductive liquid. It's used in several magnetohydrodynamic experiments because the generation of magnetic field by fluid motion is in competition with ohmic decay of the field as the current that's supporting the magnetic field flows through an imperfect conductor.

Other liquid metals such as Mercury and Gallium have been used in such (smaller) experiments, but Sodium is a 10x better conductor than either, and has other advantages (low density & inexpensive).

[stahburst]

Huzzah! We have spin!! :D And hopefully no more leaks and impromptu "gravity experiments" ok guys?

[lathropdaniel]

Many thanks all for the comments. There is some description at the right under "About this video." Also, the Earth's gravitational field is clearly due to mass -- we seek to understand the failing of the Earth's magnetic field. It is weakening in a way science has no ability to predict, for now. We build earth-like models in order to assist in building a predictive science of the geodynamo.

[mikrobluess]

Maybe the magnetic field of the earth also depend on the Sun and other heavenly bodies, and is not only depending on the earths own magnetic forces?

[raadraad]

Whoa, really? Where can one read more information about the weakening magnetic field?

[iammsterious]

Wow...what an interesting experiment. Nothing more awesome than a sphere that'll be filled with sodium and spun on it's axis to mimic the earth's gravitational field! I bet all the guys on this are super intelligent and have the best pick-up like " Hey Baby want to go back to my lab and see my 3 meter-dynamo" WOO! GO AXEL!

[rachelpaoletti]

The apparatus looks great guys. But for those of us who don't know all that much about your project - it might be nice to shoot a video with a bit of narration explaining what is/is going to be inside of it, how fast it's going, what this pertains to in science, etc. Make it sound interesting, then more people will get excited about it! Just a thought.  Keep up the good work!