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Engineer builds 'working' Thor's hammer that only he can lift
- Jemaclus 11y agoThis is pretty clever. The major improvements I'd want to make are some sort of RFID chip that deactivates the magnet when I'm close enough, instead of a fingerprint scanner. It seems like anyone who gets close enough can see the scanner, so I'd prefer to have something more invisible. And the second thing would be just to improve the lag time between grasping the handle and the deactivation of the magnet, so I can just lean down and casually grab it, instead of having to hold it for a second before bringing it up. The more magic, the better. Still, this is pretty awesome!
- smackfu 11y agoIt's a bit of a balancing act between "magical" and "proper". Like it would be very easy to just have a third party control the electro-magnet via a remote control, and it would work perfectly in all situations as long as the third party was acting correctly. But it wouldn't really be a hammer that could only be lifted by one person.
- deftnerd 11y agoThere are some ways that he could have improved the deactivation routine, but I thought the most clever thing was that he used a capacitance sensor to activate the magnet the moment the handle was touched. That had to greatly increase the battery life.
- jobigoud 11y agoBut also make it prone to discovery as the guy at the end of the video that spin the hammer out without touching the handle.
- poizan42 11y agoYou could probably spin it out even with the magnet activated. The friction coefficient is probably too low for any realistic electromagnet to be strong enough to make it impossible to "slide" out. Just try with a magnet on your fridge door. It's much easier to slide it around than it is to pull it away.
- seanalltogether 11y agoAdditionally having the hammer remain locked once he steps away would be a good improvement. It looks like it only locks when a person begins to clasp their hands around the handle.
- curiousGambler 11y agoSeems to me this is by design, to avoid wasting massive amounts of power when the hammer wasn't being grasped. A Pro Mini draws a tiny amount of power, I'm talking tens of milliamps- he could leave this hammer somewhere for weeks probably without the batteries dying, with the occasional passerby trying and failing to pick it up. To manage that with the magnet running constantly would be impossible.
- KnightHawk3 11y agoIt's also a great safety mechanism, being stuck between an electromagnet and the metal sounds unpleasant, just shout at the guy stuck to not touch the handle and it will not hurt them!
- cambion 11y agoI think an RFID ring worn on a finger would be the best bet for that.
- jeffwass 11y agoIn 'The Illusionist', the magician Eisenheim did a similar trick to Crown Prince Leopold, except it was King Arthur's sword in the stone.
- carbide 11y agoCool idea, terrible acting. I feel like the "wow" factor in his audience was really killed by the awkward way he made it look like he was pushing a button and waiting for something to happen, instead of struggling to "lift" the hammer while he waited for the thumbprint to register.
- Cerium 11y agoI knew a guy that made a lightsaber that only he could use. Part of the act was that only a "real Jedi" can activate a lightsaber. He used a neodymium ring and a hall sensor. The trick was seamless.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y agoWith all the people getting magnets implanted subcutaneously, that would be an even better trick!
- sslayer 11y agoThis would end badly - around this Thors hammer, it would rip them right out through the skin.
- curiousGambler 11y agoAnd this is why I will never get a magnet implant, despite the wicked cool ability to sense active AC power lines.
- tsotha 11y agoAs would an MRI, presumably.
- spike021 11y agoWhat about implanting an NFC chip and having the hammer stuck to a holder/floor as-is with a strong magnet?
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- netcraft 11y agoI think NFC or Bluetooth might have been better but neat execution nonetheless.
- mmanfrin 11y agoNFC matched to a subdermal NFC chip would be great.
- tlrobinson 11y agoIs there enough metal in those that a strong electromagnetic (say, like the one in this device) could rip it out of your skin...?
- drewbug 11y agoMRI machines don't: https://dangerousthings.com/implant-faq/#mri https://dangerousthings.com/implant-faq/#mri
- trishume 11y agoNeat project. I can't help but wonder if you could beat the magnet by kicking the handle sideways, the strong impact multiplied by the lever force might be enough to beat it.
- paultannenbaum 11y agoGood observation! If you watch the video to the end, this actually happens.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- brador 11y agoCould you do something similar with cornflour mix?
- c0nfused 11y agoIn testing, I found that the cornflower mix did not conceal the magnets effectively enough for the illusion to be maintained. YMMV:)
- ck2 11y agoInstead of a thumbprint, he should have used a bracelet with an rfid chip, much faster response time and his hand could have been anywhere on the handle. Or just inject the rfid chip under your finger.
- MisterBastahrd 11y agoWoulda been cool to add a remote shutoff so that the kids trying to lift it could have a bit of a thrill.
- slazaro 11y agoDownside: They might throw it or smash it on the ground like they might with a regular hammer.
- oconnor663 11y agoWhat happens if the magnet comes back on while the hammer's not touching the metal? Is there a way to make this safe?
- raimue 11y agoThe hammer seems to have multiple magnets on the bottom, so you could probably check for a closed circuit between them before turning on the magnets.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ljk 11y agoSince it's magnet, did it break the electronic devices the "lifters" were carrying?
- moron4hire 11y agoWhy would it?
- ljk 11y agoI was thinking something like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yEu2R1gYSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yEu2R1gYSs Also some credit cards have warnings to not put near magnets, but maybe the magnet's not strong enough to do damage
- moron4hire 11y agoMagnetic force decreases with the cube of distance from the source. Which is to say that it would take a ludicrously strong magnet at arm's length to do any damage to credit cards in their back pocket.
- GauntletWizard 11y agoThere's some context not obvious in that video: The machine as a whole fails, yes, but the only part of it that malfunctioned was the hard drive. The rest of the electronics in there are solid-state, and won't (okay, will be, but only minutely, and not enough to cause failure) be affected by the magnet. Your cell-phone is magnet safe.
- oakwhiz 11y agoIt needs an accelerometer to engage the magnet if the device is disturbed without the handle being touched.
- khaki54 11y agoAhh yeah to prevent the guy from spinning it off and picking it up
- raziel2701 11y agoMost of the magnetic field lines are along the z-axis (up and down) so anyone could still simply slide the hammer towards the end of the metallic floor it's sitting on(like the sewer cover) and be able to pick it up then. That's how we unstick really strong magnetic targets in our sputtering system, we simply slide them off.
- KM33 11y agoThis is really neat. I wonder if there is the possibility of using a similar magnet set-up as a lock? I worry about my motorcycle being stolen since it is so easy to pick up and most locks can be broken, if I had an electro-magnet like this one it might be much harder to steal.
- animex 11y agoAn NFC ring might have been a better solution than the laggy fingerprint scanner. Still, cool idea!
- lifeformed 11y agoI was hoping that instead of magnets, it would just be extremely heavy, and be able to activate an internal gyroscopic system to do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeyDf4ooPdo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeyDf4ooPdo It'd be pretty hard to fit all that in a small package though, and probably dangerous.
- Moshe_Silnorin 11y agoThat's not how physics works. If the hammer is too heavy to lift, putting a flywheel in it isn't going to change that.
- lambdapie 11y agoI was hoping he'd just made a really really heavy hammer, and happened to be strong enough to lift it himself.
- magicseth 11y agoMagician Robert-Houdin performed this trick in 1846 (without the fingerprint reader) [1] He used the "Light and Heavy Chest" to demonstrate his ability to remove the strength of men for political ends. [1] http://www.themagicdetective.com/2012/05/politics-magic-and-wooden-chest.html http://www.themagicdetective.com/2012/05/politics-magic-and-...
- copsarebastards 11y agoI'd have picked a different legend: the sword in the stone is more similar to how this works, the sword can be wielded by anyone after the king pulls it out of the stone, and this hammer can be wielded by anyone after the engineer pulls if off of the magnet. Thor's hammer can only be wielded by him, ever. But it's still awesome.
- Vintila 11y agoIs it possible to figure out the force required to lift this with magnets engaged?