Another Bizarre Question: Electromagnetic cutting?

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-04-09 07:41pm

Alright, another strange one from me. In Mike's brainbugs essay, he points out if you have the ability to arbitrarily focus and reshape forcefields, a negatively charged field reshaped into a wall would cut through anything, and take only a fraction of the electromagnetism held within a starship's mass.

My main question is, would such a thing be possible in the mass of say, a sword blade? Or would you need to use an electromagnet inside the blade to generate such?

I basically just got the strange idea of a sword that could cut anything, and my mind hopped to that statement in the essay. So.. Any thoughts? Or am I going insane?

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2003-04-09 07:55pm

To even start guesstimating the mass and energy requirements, you first need to know the mechanism. There is none known that would allow you to form such a field into a thin 'edge'. I believe Mr. Wong was speaking only in analogy with common sci-fi gravitic effects, which shape gravity into many forms ('gravitic shields', etc.), and yet are apparently confined into a small space. Such things are just plain impossible by current science.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-04-09 08:03pm

Yes, you can cut using electromagnetism. Do lasers or circular saws count are good examples; both use EM differently to do the job.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2003-04-09 08:16pm

Arrow Mk84 wrote:Yes, you can cut using electromagnetism. Do lasers or circular saws count are good examples; both use EM differently to do the job.

A laser does cut using an electromagnetic field by any stretch of imagination. I'm not sure what you mean in the case of the circular saw, but I'm guessing vibration, which is still not what Mr. Wong described.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-04-09 08:44pm

Kuroneko wrote:I'm not sure what you mean in the case of the circular saw, but I'm guessing vibration, which is still not what Mr. Wong described.

The only way I can think of is this. The electicity goes into the coils in the motor to generate an EM field which makes the motor go 'round and spins the saw blade which cuts the wood. Rather indirect if you ask me.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2003-04-09 09:04pm

I think he is refering to the solidity of the sawblade being an effect of EM.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-04-09 09:37pm

Actually I was refering to the electromagnetic motor in the saw, as aerius pointed out. I didn't think about what Luke said.

Wow, the last sentence in my last post doesn't make sense! I must've stripped gears by changing my thoughts that quickly!