become a superhero!

Remember Magneto, that old guy with the mask from X-men?
So, his superpower was that he could sense and manipulate magnetic materials.
In a few minutes, you can be as cool as him! hooray!

Step 1: Everything

It's really simple--you're going to tape magnets to your fingertips. This way, you feel the magnetic fields that the magnet is attracted to. You could also take a look at the http://www.instructables.com/id/ENWKZCXN9HES1768K2/ magnetic fingertip glove] instructable, which will give you the same results.

You need some magnets. I got mine from http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/ It cost me $10 for 30.
you want strong, fingertip-sized magnets.

You also need tape.

Now, tape the magnets onto your fingertips. Close your eyes and walk around waving your hands. You'll feel a pull when your fingertips come close(~1 inch) to a ferrous material. You can also feel magnetic fiels around current-carrying wires. I found that desktop halogen lamps have really strong magnetic fields around the transformers in their base, and fan motors also have a noticeable 60 hz buzz in the air around them.

Hooray!

Also, listen to the album "69 love songs" by the Magnetic Fields. If you hate it at first (I did), try to listen to it sporadically for a few years, and then spend a few nights sleeping in a hammock in a tidal marsh somewhere in northern massachusetts. At some point in this process, you'll gain an appreciation for the songwriting genius of Stephen Merritt.

Comments

[NaesDraw]

Interesting thought. Instead of implanting a magnet, what about some kind of magnetic sensitive sensor on a glove or what not, attached to a pager motor?

Don't the tape readers in cassette players work by reading the tape magnetically? I don't know if it would be sensitive enough to work. You might need something else. You could even change the output to sound, or have the motor somewhere else. If you really worked at it, you might even be able to record what frequency you are picking up.

Less invasive, more possibilities?

[a.nony.mouse]

wait a second.... Magneto is the villain in the X-Men series....

[Seppuko]

I have magnets implanted into my ring fingers. not only do I feel metal/magnets, I feel waves ;) Motors, metal detectors, etc. all give a hard-to-describe sensation in my fingers. 6th senses are awesome.

[FrozenFlameInstructables]

very believable

[Seppuko]

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/news/2006/06/71087

[the poodleo]

why do you have magnets implanted into your fingers anyways?

[XZ3R0]

what happens if you touch a really strong magnet? Couldn't it rip it out of your skin? And what if you have to work on a computer or other magnetic effected stuff like a CRT monitor?

[Seppuko]

I carry a card in my wallet that says to remove my magnets before giving me an MRI, because they will definitely rip out if the magnet is THAT strong. Non-powered magnets only cause discomfort when pressed to my skin because it pinches. I can barely notice touching a CRT monitor and it's not strong enough to erase credit cards or hard drives, which is definitely a good thing

[Unit042]

Actually, it's not a sixth sense, but an extension of the (for lack of the word) "touch" sense. I remember seeing a website of this guy who implanted things like this at home (with help from a surgeon friend) and gained many "sixth senses". Interesting stuff... not that I would do it myself. I think I might try this taping of magnets to a finger....

[wizerd 745]

can you get a link?

[jakee117]

where do you get that done? also-to your silicone conversation- my friend's finger is made out of silicone... he accidentally cut it off with a switchblade...you wouldn't know it was fake until you twisted his finger around and he doesn't scream...he had it gafted on with some fake skin solution...

[necropolian]

but if you should be placed fastly into a MRI, you will have a problem.

[pyro13]

that would b freaking awsome... but can u explain how u got it there, and is it so strong u get a "daredevil-type" sixth sense(if u have seen the movie)? how long does it take before u can move around fine without seeing?

[Seppuko]

I had them implanted. They're wrapped in silicone so I don't get infected. I don't think it's quite like daredevil (haven't seen the movie, but my roommate is an avid comic nerd) because he relies on hearing the waves. I can only feel motors within a foot or two unless there's something seriously wrong with it and it's going nuts. I told a store their theft detector thing was broken, it was really irritating to go through so I knew something was up with it. I doubt I will ever be able to move around without seeing unless I lined my room with motors and/or magnets ;)

[pyro13]

ouch! sounds painful. Is it worth the pain and trouble/ how much did it cost?

[Seppuko]

It depends. I wish I got them in a different spot because I play guitar. It was about $300 for both my ring fingers

[pyro13]

In your opinion, was it worth the money? where did you get it done? I also play guitar, where in the fingers would you recommend on getting it put?

[newkiraj]

Thats really cool! I'd like to have it done.Is it incredibly painful? and how long does it take to heal over?

[Seppuko]

Imagine someone sticking needles straight down into your finger and then taking a scalpel and cutting a slot in it. Then, taking a dull, flat metal thing and rotating it around inside of the hole that was cut to hollow it out. Then forcing something a little bigger than a bb pellet into the hole and sewing it closed. That's about how it feels :P Took about 2 weeks for it to heal over to where it didn't bother me. Took about 2 months for it to be "perfect" again (it still hurt when I hit it wrong up until that point)

[maharg20]

why the hell would you do that?

[Lftndbt]

Have you had any leeching as yet? Just interested.

[Seppuko]

leeching?

[Lftndbt]

With general knocks and bumps eventually the silicon casing may become degraded leading to leeching of the magnet.... I haven't seen a case of incertion without leeching occuring at some stage or another... Most people leave them and they eventually disitergrate with a brownish tinge to your skin. Some get them removed.... I would suggest if you see any brownish tinge or black in your immediate skin areas, get them scanned and find out if they have been breeched. get them removed if they do... I have seen some nasty pics of people hoping once they have breached the silicon that it will stop, it doesn't it just continues to break down.... No cases of toxic poisoning have been noted yet.

[Derin]

UNICODE TEST ❋

[scoobbrandon]

I just thought if somebody got magnets attached to there ear drum they could hear motors or emf

[Derin]

try changing a tape like this

[Derin]

a vcr tape muahhahahaha

[Pard]

On the man with implants...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/body-modification-goes-hightech-magnet-implants-179027.php

[ION2012]

I wounder if you could manipulate and create magnetic field around us without resorting to taping magnets to your fingers, and I hope you don't get iron build up an have a clot somewhere. Could'nt you use radio waves and resonens to do what magneto did. and ps, Magneto created and manipulated magnetic field. There are reports of peopels bodies giving off a magnetic field as to even be able to sick an big ol iron to their chest. maybe somthing in there diet?

[ION2012]

another thought. If peopel are able biologicly to create magnetic fields within themselves don't you then think its possible; useing mechanics an tech, to manipulate objects, even cancel out the "gravity" field of this earth in your area to massive objects.A thought: how much of a field was a man putting out to attach numorus heavy metal objects to his person? You could through mechanical means create a much more powerful force and be able to manipulate it. I be even on a small scale this is possible.

[NobodyInParticular]

Good thoughts, Ion, but not so applicable to living things. Almost all the iron in a healthy person's body will be in the form of non-magnetic iron oxides; diseases that result in a huge excess of metallic iron are not at all fun. In addition, the magnetic fields created on nerve cells by action potentials (waves of ion gates flipping open and shut) are extremely tiny, even in electric eels.

We might someday develop electromagnet-powered "antigravity" rooms for people to relax in, but they certainly won't involve massive electric currents flowing through the body.

[EnigmaMax]

magneto is a super villian...

[flash1322]

will your fingers stick Together

[TheMadScientist]

ok... but how about the next time I want to change out my harddrives... or, spare that, next time I want to do anything related to my computer, won't the even minor electromagnetic field screw with my equipment seeing as something as small as a static charge can destroy a harddrive?

[TheMadScientist]

~note that this was a responce to the comments about implanting magnets into your fingertips...

[bobdole]

Anecdotally, I've played around with strong neodymium magnets and an old computer, to no ill effects... I've placed a 1" cube N45 magnet directly on the bus between northbridge and ram, while running Prime95. Nothing happened.

I also placed it on top of a spinning harddrive while running scandisk, also nothing happened. no errors. I'm wondering if the aluminum case blocks the magnetic field, or what, but at any rate, there are powerful neo magnets *INSIDE* the drive, less than an inch from the platters.

I still wouldn't recommend trying this at home, perhaps my old P3 is more robust than most... I've still read several places that this is supposed to be a bad thing... including the warranty info for my harddrive.

[TheMadScientist]

yes, in fact, go check wikipedia for the effect known by the name of a "Faraday cage" basically, because the thing is surrounded by metal in one way or another, the cage, or metal case catches all of the electromagnetic charge, and lets none of it in, this same principal is used for large wavelength frequencies such as microwaves, in which case the holes in the metal must be smaller than the wave size in order for the faraday cage effect to work (otherwise the waves just pass through the holes, duh...)

[James (pseudo-geek)]

depends on the magnet. a fridge magnet wont fry it, but...say....a rare-earth magnet would. I wouldnt suggest doing it in any case tho. for instance, you could never have a CAT scan because it would rip them out.

[BorisTheSpider]

So, say you did this (either with tape or implant), but instead of a magnet, you used a tiny pouch of ferrofluid (think breast implant-style). It would be non-reactive to plain metal surfaces, but it may be just as or even more reactive than the magnets. Seems like there could almost be a forum topic about the implants.

[prank]

Well, first of all, ferrofluid can never be more reactive than magnets--there's some fundamental physics that proves that. Ferrofluid is nothing more than iron particles suspended in a fluid. Now, the magnetic field from a permanent magnet drops off with r^{3. The reason magnets are attracted to ferromagnetic objects like ferrofluid is that they induce a magnetic field in the object which then has its own magnetic field that interacts with the magnet's. The force between a magnet and a ferromagnetic object is proportional to the product of the magnet's magnetic field at the magnet's surface and the induced magnetic field on the object at the magnet's surface. The field that induces the magnet is ~1/r}3 the size of the magnet's surface field, and the induced field also falls off with r^{3 over the distance back to the magnet. The bottom line is that magnet-on-magnet forces decrease with r}3, while magnet-on-steel interactions decrease with r^{6. If you don't believe me, go and play with some magnets and steel, and you'll soon feel the difference for yourself.}

While I think using ferrofluid instead of magnets would be interesting, it runs up against this r^{6 problem, meaning that you're not as sensitive to magnetic field as you would be if you used magnets}