Watch the Strongest Indoor Magnetic Field Blast Doors of Tokyo Lab Wide Open

[Judi Lynn]

The unexpectedly large 1,200 tesla boom could help researchers explore quantum physics and help in the quest for nuclear fusion
By Jason Daley
smithsonian.com
October 1, 2018

There’s a moment in any movie or cartoon featuring a mad scientist when they flip a switch or mix two chemicals and boom, their lab explodes and smoke billows out the windows and doors. In reality, at least in the modern era, lab explosions are discouraged. But a recent experiment with electromagnetism in Tokyo produced the strongest controlled magnetic field ever created, reports Samuel K. Moore at IEEE Spectrum, powerful enough to blow open the blast doors of the laboratory.

The big bang came when researchers at the University of Tokyo pumped 3.2 megajoules of electricity into a specially designed coil to produce a massive magnetic field. While the researchers were hoping that the field would reach 700 teslas, the unit used to measure magnetic flux density or informally, magnetic field strength. Instead, the field reached 1,200 teslas. That’s about 400 times stronger than the most powerful MRI machine, which produces three teslas. The resulting explosion bent up the iron cupboard the device was enclosed in and blasted open the metal doors.

“I designed the iron housing to endure against about 700 T,” physicist Shojiro Takeyama, senior author of the study in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, tells Moore. “I didn’t expect it to be so high. Next time, I’ll make it stronger.”

Luckily, the researchers themselves were tucked away in a control room, protected from the blast.


Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/strongest-indoor-magnetic-field-blows-doors-tokyo-lab-180970436/#Uvq6zw7EZd15qtdX.99

[AllaN01Bear]

1. youtube video

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[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for the video. Amazing. n/t