Copper's Surprising Reaction to Strong Magnets | Force Field Motion Dampening

What people said

Recommends Mark H · 2022-03 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Are eddy currents produced by a coil of copper wire?”

The magnet's motion would be opposed by electrical currents induced in the wire. I wouldn't call these "eddy currents" since they flow in the same direction along the entire wire, but that's just a point about names. You can connect a light bulb to the coil and it will light up as the magnet passes through. Here's a video [this video] of a magnet moving past various arrangements of copper. The coil demonstration starts at 1:49.

Cites fyrepenguin · 2019-04 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Would a superconductor act similarly to copper when braking a strong magnet on a pendulum”

I recently watched this gif [LINK] (higher quality available here) [LINK] from this video [this video] , showing a magnet swinging towards a large disk of copper, where it stops gently before hitting the magnet. I understand that the eddy currents have a braking effect on the magnet. What I am curious about is how this would be affected if the copper disk was to be replaced by a superconductor. Would it act similarly, or would it stop at a further distance from the superconductor than the copper (or not be stopped at all)? The closest thing that I could find was a discussion [LINK] on whether a magnet would fall freely in a superconducting tube, which doesn't totally apply to this situation, and

Cites no name the astronaut · 2021-12 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “A question relating to Lenz's law”

I was watching a Youtube video about magnetic induction and a guy explained to me that when a magnet moves by a piece of copper it causes a magnetic field in the copper which slows the magnet down but in some part of the video and somewhere in the video it showed the magnet slowing down a clear PVC pipe with a copper coil wrapped around it and on this copper coil it had an LED attached. He said " The LED is very efficient so powering it doesn't slow down the magnet quite as much " So my question is what causes the diminishing of Lenz's law to allow what he said to occur. Link to the video --> [this video]

Cites no name the astronaut · 2021-12 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “A question relating to Lenz's law”

Hey thx for answering my question. I have another question for you relating to the same youtube video " [this video] " He says that he is able to move the other magnet from afar using the copper plate so how does that work?

Cites Young Jun Lee · 2022-10 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Nuclear fusion reactors and neutrons”

Thank you, I was searching for this problem but almost nothing regarding the neutrons came up (on Google and Youtube, at least). Regarding the neutrons; as they have a magnetic moment, do you think it could be possible to get them to stop in front of a thick sheet of copper, much like how magnets abruptly stop in front of copper sheets? Example seen here: [this video]

Cites RC_23 · 2022-11 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Are non-contact forces conservative forces?”

No. Eddy currents are an example of dissipative, non-conservative forces which are non-contact. Examples include dropping a magnet through a copper tube, or the example below where a magnet swings on a string and is stopped by the metal plate without touching it. [this video] A conservative force means it is governed by a potential and is reversible. Meaning the force on an object is determined by its position in space, and by returning to the original position you can recover the energy – eg a pendulum in a gravitational potential field.

Cites Boba Fit · 2023-01 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “Can someone please clear this doubt regarding Lenz's Law?”

Doubt 1: E&M is a conservative force. In this context that means linear momentum is conserved. So the force exerted on the approaching magnet is exactly matched by an opposing force on the coil. There is no imbalance. Example: When an electric motor turns its rotor with torque T, the body of the motor experiences an exactly balancing torque -T. The balancing torque has to be resisted by the structure holding the motor. Doubt 2: Iron cores for a solenoid will be a complicated situation. The cores usually mean the solenoid is stronger, so an approaching magnet probably feels stronger force. But the flux will be distorted by the core, so the exact result is complicated and depends on the detail

Cites Studentician · 2025-06 · Physics Stack Exchange · on “How does this magnetism go so far?”

I was watching a video on the different effects of putting copper between magnets. In every video I watched on this topic, the same effects were exemplified. These effects essentially stem from the the magnet creating a current in the copper which produces a magnetic field that opposes the magnet. But then I came across this video [this video] that shows a magnet moving another magnet really far away (at 4:15). If you go to 4:15 in the video, you will see him controlling a cube magnet way too far away for the magnetic force to reach with that much force. Does the copper plate cause the magnetic to somehow increase the distance of its magnetic force on the other magnet? Does anyone know anything a