Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion?

From	ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
Newsgroups	sci.electronics.design, sci.astro, sci.physics
Subject	Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion?
Date	2026-02-01 12:57 +0000
Organization	Stefan Ram
Message-ID	<field-20260201134701@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de> (permalink)
References	<10lnf3n$3mhoh$1@dont-email.me>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> wrote or quoted:
>So that makes me wonder if a spacecraft with just a permanent magnet
>that you can move to give you a force in the direction you want to go

  A permanent magnet has a fixed magnetic dipole moment m.

  It would feel a net force F = grad( m B ) in an inhomogeneous
  magnetic field B.

|Electromagnetic acceleration of permanent magnets 04078 (arxiv.org)
|by SN Dolya · 2015

  from there:

|The force of the magnetic dipole interaction Fz with the gradient of the
|magnetic field can be written as follows:
|Fz = m*dBz/dz, (1)
|where m - the magnetic moment per mass unit, dBz /dz - the magnetic field
|gradient.

  However, in nature there are no fields that can be used to accelerate
  a spacecraft this way, so one would have to generate such fields.

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Thread

Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> - 2026-02-01 11:57 +0000
  Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2026-02-01 12:57 +0000
    Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> - 2026-02-01 16:44 +0000
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2026-02-01 16:55 +0000
        Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Ian <gay@sfu.ca> - 2026-02-01 16:19 -0800
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-02 05:35 +0100
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-02 05:40 +0100
  Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-02-02 00:41 +1100
    Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? "Edward Rawde" <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-02-01 09:58 -0500
    Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-02 08:50 -0800
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> - 2026-02-02 16:55 +0000
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> - 2026-02-02 09:28 -0800
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? John Hasler <john@sugarbit.com> - 2026-02-02 11:49 -0600
        Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> - 2026-02-02 14:23 -0500
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> - 2026-02-02 12:39 -0800
            Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> - 2026-02-02 15:53 -0500
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? John Hasler <john@sugarbit.com> - 2026-02-02 11:43 -0600
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? ehsjr <ehsjr@verizon.net> - 2026-02-02 16:49 -0500
        Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-02 20:42 -0800
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-04 20:11 +0100
            Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-05 16:24 -0800
              Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-06 02:09 +0100
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-06 00:24 -0800
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-02-06 20:18 +1100
              Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-02-06 18:07 +1100
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) - 2026-02-06 09:45 +0000
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-07 01:54 +0100
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-07 19:48 -0800
                Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? athel.cb@gmail.com <user12588@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-02-08 11:42 +0000
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> - 2026-02-05 16:48 -0800
        Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-04 16:36 +0100
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-02-03 15:54 +1100
        Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Jeremiah Jones <jj@j.j> - 2026-02-03 20:35 -0800
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-02-04 16:59 +1100
          Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-04 16:58 +0100
      Re: Could magnets be used for interstellar propulsion? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2026-02-04 16:23 +0100

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