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?")

Try something thicker than aluminum flashing. (To be sure, I just tried it
with a HDD magnet on the back a piece of aluminum t-track and it worked
great.) The magnet should slide down abnormally slowly. Compare by sliding
a coin or something. It's way cool!

- Owen -