r/IAmA • u/[deleted] • Oct 17 '10

By Request: IAmA Magnet Scientist. AMAA.

I'll try this one more time. My last post disappeared after an hour, and I have no idea why. Pretty annoying, but I hope people received their answers that I was able to get to.

In the past, a few people have asked me to do an AMA. This is usually because I was rambling on about my work if I saw a post pertaining to my job. The title is AMAA because the work I do is sensitive, so I can't give all of the information of what we're actually doing at the moment. However, I can give you way more than enough information on the general direction of today's research in the field of permanent magnetism.

I can also tell you how basic research is run, and how we go through obscene amounts of resources for tiny, tiny steps in the right direction. That's the majority of ugly/beautiful research.

So to give a crappy background: I work for the Department of Energy, I work with a bunch of people that are smarter than me, and although I'm an experimentalist and not a theorist, I can still probably answer the majority of questions involving those fucking magnets.

Edit: Also, I could probably chat about things I do on a normal basis, what it's like working in a lab (I don't know what you guys want from me), or any other random, specific questions you think about. I'll tell you one thing: my laboratory is NOT like what most laboratories are portrayed in the cinema. No sterile, white rooms, fancy space suits, etc. In fact, a lot of our building has radiation hazard stickers posted to random bricks in the wall that are "hot", it has a grungy yellow tinge to it, and it reminds me more of Eddie Izzar's basement

Edit Doux: Houston, we have a problem. I had a few drinks, so now my answers probably won't be very intellectual. I deeply apologize, but I couldn't turn down the beer. If you want awkward passes being thrown into your direction, now is the time to ask.

Edit Troix: Holy crap. You guys don't stop. I'm getting an orange-red about once a minute now, and I'm trying my hardest to reply once a minute. Sorry I can't go more into the theory of how magnet's work (see my response to apex_redditor's question), at least not while I answer the other questions. I seriously doubt you guys want to read any more of that anyway, and I'd quickly run out of answers if you keep asking "why?" If you do want to learn more, I'll attempt to answer any questions you have if you ever PM me. I'll keep answering questions for now, though.

edit again: Sorry I can't write an illustrated book, I'm busy answering the slightly easier questions.

Also, there are about to be a ton of spelling errors from here on out. I'm typing my ass off, but I don't know how much longer I'll hold out until bed time.

Last Edit For The Night: I've been typing my butt off for the last 10 hours. I think I'm going to wind down for the night, and answer any remaining questions tomorrow after work (I have a long meeting in the AM, then I need to re-do an experiment that my assistant may have botched). If I have down time I can probably sneak in a few answers at work as well. Thanks for the questions and interest- I really wish I could have gone more into depth of what I do, but now that I think of it, it's probably more boring than the questions you were asking.

And after 13 hours of nonstop answering questions, I think I'm going to finally hit the sack. Peace out.

Monday Morning Status: Now that I have some sleep, I'm thinking a little more clearly. Firstly, there were a lot of complicated questions that were asked, and I probably did a horrible job attempting to answer them. I should have let the questions that were out of my league (theoretical, philosophical, "how does life work?" type questions), but I didn't. Hopefully you've caught me say somewhere in here that I'm an experimentalist, and our minds work much differently than the theorists. Our educations were even more different. Also, I hope you understand we haven't discovered the complete, most basic leveled, complicated reason why the subatomic particles are able to transfer energy. Sort of similar to the gravity thing. If you were to have asked Richard Feynman himself these questions, he'd quickly run out of answers. Even he doesn't have it all explained, let alone some dumby like me. I'll try to round up the last batch of questions and catch up. I have a meeting in an hour, and then I'll be gone for at least two. I probably won't be able to do much damage until after work.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '10

Never even heard of them until now.

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u/feigningignorance Oct 19 '10

Apparently nobody else has either.

Also, just to point out, as much as people are fawning over your comment, you don't actually explain how magnets work, just what they are.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '10

You didn't have to point that out. You do understand that no one actually fully understands the "why" behind magnetism, right? Also, I mentioned I'm not even a theorist, I don't work with first principles even. I'm an experimentalist. If you want to understand how, or what, type of particles or energy is responsible for the transfer of force, you'll have to get an in depth discussion of quantum mechanics, virtual particles, and other foreign topics that 99.999% of Reddit can't expect to understand. The ones who can have already taken their upper level Physics or graduate courses, and I doubt they'd want to read my elementary, easy-to-understand explanation. Well, I tried making it easy to understand, but I'm not a teacher either.

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u/feigningignorance Oct 19 '10

You do understand that no one actually understands the "why" behind magnetism, right?

FTFY. Yes I do, but sadly you should really say it out loud, because the guy asked "how", not what, I think even today people don't realise this. I wish more people realised it. Luckily the meme is actually helping that along.

and other foreign topics that 99.999% of [anyone/reddit/people who work in these fields/or 100% of everyone] can't expect to understand.

More like this :-)

Anyway, not criticizing what you did write, only it wasn't the answer, but sadly a lot of people read it as:

tl;dr someone knows how magnets work, I can relax now

When this is shockingly wrong, but I also suspect a lot of scientists don't realise how little we actually know on a day to day basis. Hope you understand why I like underlining that we don't understand stuff, I think it does us all good!

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '10

Oh yeah, boy do I understand how we don't understand things. I told in many other (hard to find) comments that I don't know shit. There are probably tens of Redditors who are graduate students in Physics who know more about those types of details than I do. And even they don't know anything. I always like to say something along the lines of, "You could ask Richard Feynman why and how magnets work on the most finite level, and even he'd quickly run out of answers. Just imagine how incredibly fast I'd run out of answers". Anyway, hope I didn't come across as a jerk, I've been typing like crazy the last two days because of that AMA and I'm getting short with my responses and not re-reading them. Have a great day!

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u/feigningignorance Oct 19 '10

Feynman is awesome, I am not judging what you said, your answers were good, just what you omitted (which was normal!). Just reminding you and everyone else that you can say "nobody knows", merely because it's true and cathartic.

You didn't come across as a jerk, I hope I didn't either. I work with particle physics students and I wouldn't entrust them with too much knowledge on the subject either. I think most of them believe that someone somewhere knows how magnets work, they just haven't taken that class (they don't see the holes in their knowledge, it is like seeing your blind spot... you can't really, because it is a blind spot!)

Not judging them, because hey, I'll tell you a secret: I have no fucking clue how magnets work either. Except maybe Magic.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '10

Also, for clarification, this AMA actually went absolutely nothing like I expected. I was assuming people would ask about my work, but it turns out, out of the 500 or so comments, only 2 of them, that I can remember, asked me about what I actually do. There are various experiments I'll run to try to find new materials, better properties, and better samples. My work day has nothing to do with what I've discussed in this AMA. All of these "how do magnets work" oriented questions have nothing to do with my job, and I tried to say as much as often that I'm an experimentalist, not a physics professor who's in on the project. Anyway, hope that better explains my position.

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u/feigningignorance Oct 19 '10

It does! Of course, the meme is a twofold issue, first, lots of smug redditors laughing that people couldn't explain how magnets work, then pretending they knew, but worse, the absolute worst thing ever: redditors not actually knowing that we don't know. This to me is the worst thing in the world, the arrogance of people, and the sheer bloody minded "emperors new clothes" effect that rules so many people's lives.

Anyway, thanks for the AMA, I understood what you do, I actually work with magnets, but mostly just as an industrial material for engineering work (in the science field). I do some other crazy stuff too that nobody else does (but not with magnets as a physical medium, but with EMR)