3 ms·

Amazing stuff. Kinda out there... I always thought that maybe the earth's magnetic fields can affect cultures in different areas of the world, leading to diff

Amazing stuff. Kinda out there... I always thought that maybe the earth's magnetic fields can affect cultures in different areas of the world, leading to different morals really. I wonder how much this can affect thinking processes and learning as well? For instance why do cultures on the other side of the world all write seemingly backwards or from the other side? Russian seems like it is upside down and backwards to English. Is it just relative cultures or some forces pushing things to feel natural differently depending on where you are in various fields.

a-priori 17y ago
Whoa there, this isn't the kind of magnet you find on your fridge door. TMS uses pulses (not static fields) from a 2 tesla magnet. For comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is 31 µT and a fridge magnet is 5 mT. But, the fact that it's a pulse is the more important than the field strength: the goal is to produce a current in the brain via Faraday's law. In order to do that, you need a magnetic flux, and therefore a rapid change in the field strength. Sitting in a magnetic field, no matter how strong, is not going to induce a current. tl;dr: Any theories about the Earth's magnetic field affecting moral judgement are bull. Ditto for everyday magnets. (Correction: I just read the paper. They used a 3T field in this study, not 2T.)
- cj 17y ago
  "When you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes the truth is revealed"
  - gloob 17y ago
    And the rest of the time, nonsense is revealed.
    - epochwolf 17y ago
      This makes me think that if you speak nonsense you have a random chance of getting something brilliant out. My brother is like that, it's damn annoying most of that time.
  - a-priori 17y ago
    I see your quote, and raise you one more: "We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out." Richard Dawkins
- nitrogen 17y ago
  There are other species that are influenced by or rely upon the earth's magnetic field. I'm not a biologist and haven't heard of any evidence that humans are magnetically sensitive in some way, but knowing that the trait has evolved in multiple species suggests it could be found in some form in some humans.

a-priori 17y ago

Whoa there, this isn't the kind of magnet you find on your fridge door. TMS uses pulses (not static fields) from a 2 tesla magnet. For comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is 31 µT and a fridge magnet is 5 mT. But, the fact that it's a pulse is the more important than the field strength: the goal is to produce a current in the brain via Faraday's law. In order to do that, you need a magnetic flux, and therefore a rapid change in the field strength. Sitting in a magnetic field, no matter how strong, is not going to induce a current. tl;dr: Any theories about the Earth's magnetic field affecting moral judgement are bull. Ditto for everyday magnets. (Correction: I just read the paper. They used a 3T field in this study, not 2T.)

cj 17y ago
"When you open your mind to the impossible, sometimes the truth is revealed"
- gloob 17y ago
  And the rest of the time, nonsense is revealed.
  - epochwolf 17y ago
    This makes me think that if you speak nonsense you have a random chance of getting something brilliant out. My brother is like that, it's damn annoying most of that time.
- a-priori 17y ago
  I see your quote, and raise you one more: "We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out." Richard Dawkins
nitrogen 17y ago
There are other species that are influenced by or rely upon the earth's magnetic field. I'm not a biologist and haven't heard of any evidence that humans are magnetically sensitive in some way, but knowing that the trait has evolved in multiple species suggests it could be found in some form in some humans.