Don Bruder wrote:

In article ,
Trevor Jones wrote:

Wanna baffle a lot of people? Drop a rare earth magnet down a piece of
aluminum pipe. Have them explain to you why it drops the way it does.

OK, having seen this type of mention twice in this thread now, and
lacking the ability to perform the "experiment" (Got some HDD magnets,
but apparently nothing suitable to drop them down - they just slid down
the aluminum flashing I tried. Big fat hairy deal...) I gotta know:

What happens? (Not the physics, electrical theory, etc, just the
physical "What am I supposed to see when I do it?")

It drops in slow motion. In a vertical tube, the magnet will flutter
down at about half the speed of about any other object of similar
density that you can drop down the tube.

A magnet dropped down the side of a sloped sheet of aluminum will show
some of the same effect, but it really only shows well when you can drop
a washer or such, alongside the magnet.

Pretty comical to hear the explanations why, sometimes.

Cheers
Trevor Jones