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starship-design: Magnetic Monopole



kyle writes:
 > When I tested the field, I found (using a compass) that there was no
 > south field at all surrounding the monopole. Could a device like this be
 > useful for anything? I was thinking maybe magnetic monorails? 

One has to be careful interpreting the behavior of a compass.  For
example, a non-magnetized lump of iron would show similar behavior;
depending on which end of the compass you brought closest to it first,
that end would keep pointing at the lump for as long as you kept the
compass nearby and didn't shake it too much, because the magnet of the
compass needle is attracted to the iron lump.  Your measurement is
definitely not conclusive.

If your object is a dipole (and I strongly suspect it is, you probably
just aren't being careful enough about measuring the field) then it will
show orientation in a magnetic field consistent with that; it will line
up differently depending on the direction of an externally-applied
magnetic field.

Oh, and don't forget to throw it through a superconducting ring, just to
be sure :-)

 > How does magnetism warp gravity? Anti-gravity?

It doesn't.  Mass will create a gravitational field proportional to the
mass, but the electric charge or magnetic field of that mass has no
effect on the gravitational field created (other than the field energy's
contribution to the mass).

 > What are the charachteristics of a magnetic monopole? (device, not
 > particle)

The dumb answer is that a magnetic monopole is not a dipole.  A monopole
is either all north or all south, analagous to how electric fields are
either positive or negatively charged.  However, nobody's ever observed
a monopole nor has anyone constructed a device to form a monopole
magnetic field.  All known means of producing magnetism have to form
dipole fields if they use either electric current or magnetic
materials.