Mind-Blowing Magic Magnets - Smarter Every Day 153

Hey, it's me Destin. Welcome back to SmarterEveryDay.

You might not know this but

every single hydraulic pump in every car you've probably ever been in

has a little bitty magnet in it to catch shavings so that the mechanism doesn't foul up.

Now, I know this because when I was growing up both of my parents worked at this plant

and made steering pumps.

The cool thing about that is that they would bring home the magnets that were out of spec

and bring them to me and I got to play for hours

and understand things about how magnets attract and how they repel each other.

So, today I wanna talk about magnets.

Specifically, I want to do a slow motion

experiment with a little boy named Garrett who reminds me of my child-like

fascination with magnets

and then after that I wanna talk to you about the next great

manufacturing leap in magnets.

Printable magnets! It's amazing.

Let's go get Smarter Every Day.

Two "Rs" two "Ts"? [Garrett] Mhm

[Destin] This is Garrett, two "Rs" two "Ts"

Hello, Garrett [Garrett] Hello, how are you?

[Destin] I am in Connecticut and Garrett brought something for me to do in slowmo.

What did you bring me, Garrett?

[Garrett] I brought magnets that,

I don't want to flip them right now 'cause that'll take a long time to redo

but when you flip one they all turn together

and almost instantly go back into one [Destin] And you observed this yourself, right?

[Garret] Yeah [Destin] This is something you came up with and you want to do. So, we're going to try in slow motion right?

[Garret] Once I flip this first part over and these are all going to fold over onto it

Five, four, three, two, one, zero

[Destin] That was really cool actually, Garrett. That was actually very very cool. (laughter)

Alright so... (laughter)

[Destin and Garrett] Whoa... [Unknown voice] The force is strong with this one.

(laughter)

[Destin] And you came up with this idea, huh? [Garrett] Yup