How to Shrink a Quarter WITH SCIENCE!

[Iason Ouabache]

http://intellectualventureslab.com/?p=71

We found out that a local laboratory known as Hackerbot Labs had built a device which uses electromagnetic forming in order to shrink quarters down to the size of a dime. This device would be ideal for us to test our new highspeed video camera and other equipment, while collecting interesting data on how this device is functioning.

Rob Flickenger was kind enough to bring over their device and allow us to film it. What is presented below has likely never been seen by the human eye.

The electromagnetic pulse shrinks the quarter in about 30 microseconds. This event happens so quickly we had to shoot our video at over 100,000 frames per second. Interesting engineering solutions had to be developed to capture this video – - clear acrylic rods, first surface mirrors and special triggers to fire off massive amounts of light from the camera flash.


The Quarter Shrinker was constructed by Rob Flickenger and other folks at Hackerbot Labs.

Quarter Shrinking has three steps.
1. make a coil of wire,
2. stick quarter inside it,
3. discharge an enormous amount of electric current through the coil.

But what does that actually do, other than making a big boom?

Passing current through a coil of wire produces a magnetic field. In this case, with so much current, the magnetic field produced is gigantic: the coil becomes a magnificently powerful electromagnet.

The creation of a magnetic field in the coil-now-magnet induces a circling current to flow around the coin sitting inside the coil. This current in the coin also produces a magnetic field (i.e., the coin becomes another electromagnet). The kicker is that the coin's magnetic field and the coil's magnetic field point in opposite directions, so the coin and the coil repel each other furiously.

This repulsion creates forces which overcome the strength of the metal; the coil is expanded out and explodes, and the coin is pushed in and shrunk.

There are a pair of awesome videos on the site. I usually don't care for electromagnetic mumbo jumbo, but the explosions are really pretty.  Here is the finished product btw.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's actually kind of upsetting.

[Fuquad]

Finally.


A way to demonstrate what is happening to the value of American Currency.

AND IT USES CURRENTS.

[Cainad (dec.)]

That's actually kind of upsetting.

The term you were looking for is "amazingly wonderful."

[Iason Ouabache]

Now that I think about it, they really should have taken a picture from edge-on. If none of the mass was zapped away in the process^*  the coin should be alot thicker than the original. The magnetic field would have squished all of the mass towards the center of the coin. I'm not going to do the math but it should be at least twice as thick as a normal quarter.


^* - It probably lost a small amount from the extreme heat but not enough to notice.

[MMIX]

That's actually kind of upsetting pointless.

your currency is in freefall anyhow

[Arafelis]

the coin should be alot thicker than the original.

Or just denser.

[Cait M. R.]

bullshit

Jump off a bridge already.

[Triple Zero]

Finally.


A way to demonstrate what is happening to the value of American Currency.

AND IT USES CURRENTS.

YES IT IS A BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATION OF CURRENT EVENTS

(bwaahaahhahaha)

(sorry but I think I am hilarious today. blame coffee and sleep deprivation)

[Iason Ouabache]

the coin should be alot thicker than the original.

Or just denser.

YOUR A IDIOT.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

the coin should be alot thicker than the original.

Or just denser.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's actually kind of upsetting pointless.

your currency is in freefall anyhow

That's not related to why it's upsetting.

[fomenter]

OK i am curious why is it upsetting?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Because they say the quarter is shrunken. It's not shrunken, it's only reshaped.

[fomenter]

   its not as exiting saying "its diameter has been reduced"