What would happen if magnets stopped working?

Question

I asked a similar question earlier: What would happen if electricity stopped working?. But I was also thinking about what would happen if magnets stopped working. This question is very related to what things need magnetic fields to work. For example:

• compasses
• refrigerator magnets

However, the big problem would be the lack of electromagnets, which are used in:

• motors (therefore mass transit, cars, planes, boats...)
• heavy lifting (for construction)
• generators (hydroelectric, wind, ...)

Would there be any wide-spread implications of such a disaster?

Answer 1

We all die. Slow painful deaths.

if Magnetic fields quit working, the biggest problem is the one the Earth is producing to protect us from a bunch of solar radiation. Remember the borealis? That is a visual reminder of the protection provided. It also helps keep our atmosphere from slowly being torn away by the solar winds.

Magnetic fields also are instrumental in generating the vast majority of our electricity. So we would probably mostly starve to death (large populations, not every single person) before we die of radiation poisoning or cancer.

Answer 2

If you're talking about ALL magnetism, the answer is pretty boring - everyone and everything immediately and literally falls apart.

Electrons are bound to the nuclei of atoms through the electromagnetic force, so without magnetism electrons would fly off.

Sharing of electrons is what binds different atoms together into molecules.

Protons would not push against each other, so larger atomic nuclei should be more stable. The strong and weak nuclear forces would still be in play, so I'm not exactly sure how they'd behave.

So without magnetism, all electrons go whizzing off, all molecules fall apart, and the nuclei of the approximately 10^50 atoms in the Earth all clump together, potentially forming a single atom with atomic number of somewhere around 10^51.

Answer 3

Electric force, magnetic force, and light is all one thing. Kill that and you shut down all electromagnetic radiation and the binding force that makes atoms and molecules.

In short, that's what happened to the dark matter that turns out to be far more common than our stuff. Somehow this little bit escaped that fate, so be careful!

Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear interaction are unified at high energy scales. The electoweak force breaks down and forms different phenomena in our regime. So maybe space can tunnel into a lower true vacuum state in which electromagnetism breaks down and is replaced by a plurality of different separate things.

Interpretations of the Idea

The magnetic force in general is all one thing with the electric force and light. The two forces are literally one thing if seen in 4D spacetime: a pure electric field like the charge of an electron sitting in space will be seen to be partly a magnetic field to a moving observer. In fact, you can deduce magnetism must exist simply by applying relativistic effects to moving charges.

So you can't just say magnetism in general is gone and static electric forces are not, without seriously rewriting the universe to be based on Galileo's universal time as opposed to special relativity.

You would lose the electric force, and there go atoms, etc. as pointed out in other questions. I'm sorry to see that the question evolved to clarify in this direction!

A much less impossible situation ripe with plot potential is to leave the forces alone and just target permanent magnets. Magnetism exists and must exist if electric charges exist and move, or even if the don't move because they still have quantum spin and orbital angular momentum while being stationary!

Every electron is a magnet. Normally in bulk they cancel out, not only because of random orientations but because loose magnets will push each other into orientations to better cancel out. But it is some subtle quirks that allow for magnetic domains in permanent magnets. For other reasons it is energetically favorable for the unpaired electrons to line up. The potential energy this causes is more than paid for by savings elsewhere, and finding such circumstances in the crystalline arrangement of a metal grain is why you get magnetic domains and ferromagnetism.

So a plot device would be an alien weapon using nanotechnology or control over subtle fields we don't know about, or a natural phenomenon that changes the subtle interactions and prevents this situation from finding an energetically favorable solution. Magnetic domains in ordinary metals become unstable just as if it were heated above the curie point, and magnets no longer become a thing at our everyday environment, temperature, and pressure.

Plot Potential

You can have a vague idea of "permanent magnets stop working" but lots of loopholes, special rules, and exceptions. If it's based on nanotech, you can have quarantine formulations that resist the attack. If a field of some kind you can find the new rules of energy levels and build technology that works under those new conditions.

Without exceptions and special pleading which is specific to the mechanisms you invent for the phenomenon, you still have the situation where common metal magnets fall off the 'fridge, but electromagnets still work… if you can manage to start a current flowing without using magnets, as explored in some of the other answers. And you might still have some exotic materials like ceramics that manage to still work or work very weakly.

Answer 4

Electricity generation would have to turn to other methods: Thermal, solar, chemical. So a global shift in power generation would need to take place ASAP since most power grids use spinning magnetic turbines (oil, coal, hydro or nuclear powered) to generate electricity.

Electric motors wouldn't work, so we'd basically have to return to steam engines or man(horse) power.

The earth's magnetic field protects us from deadly cosmic radiation, so we'd have to figure out how to protect ourselves.

If this is something that happened overnight, it would basically be an apocalypse-level event. Basically everything would stop. All manufacturing, all agriculture, all transport, all communication. There would be widespread panic and death.

Also, the molecules atoms of all of the noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon) are all held together by electromagnetic attraction. So those element would cease to exist. (which also begs the question of if any matter would survive without magnetism I suppose. I'm not a chemist, so I'm not sure)

Answer 5

Since most everybody went the other way I will say assume there is some kinda magical change in how electrons in ferrometals interact with the world causing them to be unable to be magnetized. So Electromagnetism still works as a force but there is no way to make a permanent or electro magnets.

1) compasses stop for two reasons. We quickly remember stellar navigation.

2) electric motors and dynamos all stop working electricity goes out for everything but batteries, solar and [some] geothermal. Starters in gasoline cars no longer work. Most diesels are fine but before long the headlight go out. the trains still chug along but the switching is kaput.

3) Cancer and some warming from all the ionized particle no longer blocked by the earth's former magnet.

4) Speakers, headphones and whatnot no longer work but Victrolas still do. Flash drives still work hard drives and tape are all blank. Most flat screen will be fine but CRTs will not be able to focus or scan. credit cards will need to be typed in manually. Radios and phone work except for the speakers which don't. Microwaves, fridges and a lot of switches don't work any more. But most toaster are fine as your tablet. (if you have batteries, Solar, power cells or thermocouples for them)

We would be set back to the 19th for most things including agriculture and manufacturing. We would survive.

Answer 6

Well, if magnetism stopped working, magnetic induction would stop working. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction) So there would be no more electrical power except from solar cells and chemical recations. Basically society would be back to steam as a means of energy transportation.

Answer 7

A lot of people talk about how the earth's magnetic shield, or the fabric of the universe itself, would fall apart if there were no electromagnetic force.

However, let's examine the simple case of magnets not working. I don't mean electromagnetism, but just the magnets we use in society. Also, let's suppose the Earth's core remains magnetic, so we don't all die shortly thereafter.

So what happens?

1. All items held on refrigerators by magnets immediately fall to the floor.
2. compasses, stick/holding magents, electric motors, a fair number of electronics (which have magnetic parts), and electrical transmission (the power grid, which relies on transformers) would cease to work. Most if not all vehicles would stop running (airplanes and ships), while smaller boats and vehicles require electric starters. Though, it might be possible to mechanically turn a combustion engine to start; I don't understand those that well.
3. We would have to re-write our understanding of physics, because either we missed something big that we have to account for, or we fundamentally misunderstood electromagnetism. This might be a change like Einstein's relativity versus Newton's laws of mechanics. We would need toexplain why little magnets became no longer magnetic, but yet why the universe still holds together, and the planet's core was still magnetic.
4. Also, we would have to account for why the change suddenly happened, which was not predicted in our physical models either.

So not only would we be thrown into a non-industrial, non-electric, gas-and-steam era, we would also be set back about 250 years in physics.

Answer 8

Yup, no electrical generation, solar radiation, ...long list. I'll add to it with induction. Inductors in electrical equipment are actually simple coils of wire, which can store electricity in the form of a magnetic field. If you remove the power the field collapses back in to the inductor; generating, or at least regenerating, an electromagnetic field.

My point is, that solar cells aren't going to help you. Most electronic products use some induction to clean up the power entering the unit, or to produce different voltages such as the flyback transformer in an old TV, the HT coil on your car, or the main component in your stungun/taser.

Answer 9

Most of the people answering this question are very pedantic and don't understand the question at all.

Imagine a universe, and in this universe there was a substance, capable of generating a gravitational field that was comparable in strength to the magnetic field magnets have. Let's call it "gravinets". The humans there are exactly like us and make an entire technology base and society build around it. With enough gravinets everyone would be able to fly, it would be normal. The world would be colonized faster. We could fly to the moon. And then someone ask the question, what if gravinets didn't work. Well, we would have a world exactly like ours. Some pedantic people would say, we all would die, launched into space by the centrifugal force of the Earth. This fictional universe, has different fundamental forces. We are just changing one that "gravinets" don't exist. Earth still has a gravitational field strong enough to keep us in it, because of its mass. Just like there is a distinction between string and weak force. We just can't make antigravity, or artificial gravity. We would not die. Life would go on. Some species that depend of "antigravity" or directional gravitational fields would die. There would be no fying cars, etc..., but Earth's gravitational field would keep working. And we would to use primitive technology. we would have to sail ships, guided by strange things tied to strings. Things like magnets... Our extremely efficient gravitic engines would not work, we would have to find something else to power them. Maybe electromagnets...

But what if magnets stopped working?When I Say stopped working, it is not like turning an electromagnet off, that it could be turned on again. I mean all magnets in the world would become useless lumps of matter and no other magnet could ever be made ever again. Electromagnetism as an universal law would be changed, so the universe would keep existing, but it wouldn't allow for the existence of magnets anymore.***This isn't our universe anymore, its fundamental law has changed, we think them immutable because they never changed in the observable universe, but if they stopped working the way we think they should work, then they would not be immutable * Magnets would stop existing, becoming inert lumps of matter. Electromagnetism as we know wouldn't work anymore. It would become impossible to make things with magnets. Electricity would be either nonexistent or be completely different. Maybe chemical batteries and lamps would still work. But magnets and electromagnets would not. And anything that depended on them. The same way that the "gravinets" don't work in our world, no matter how hard you vibrate them.**Electricity would still exist, but it would either be extremely weak bioelectricity, or very high scale like lightning

No compasses, because Earth electromagnetic field cannot be perceived by solids anymore. No radio, no computers, basically no modern technology as we know today. Some Species that depend on electromagnetic orientation to find north would die. Life would go on. Magnetism is magic, and magic doesn't exist. And no one would be blind, because light (in this scenario) is a particle. Our chemistry would be different. Maybe we would use steam engines. Or biotechnology mutated by radiation.

And then someone asks, what if radiation didn't exist...

Answer 10

From my understanding, I'd like to point at a few things. (bear with me)

If superstring theory is correct and all, magnetism could never stop existing. It's just how string theory says the universe should work.

But if we let magnetism stop, you might want to note that we have 4 forces in the universe:

1. Gravitational Force

2. Electromagnetic Force

3. Strong Force

4. Weak Force

You might not have heard of the last 2, so I will briefly explain.

Inside an atom, all of the protons are grouped at the center. Also, they have positive charges. Putting that in mind, electromagnetic forces should push them apart, like when you try to stick two magnets together from the positive side, they repel. But strong force counters this and holds the nucleus together (and is stronger).

Weak force is a weak atomic force that causes radiation. It is usually overpowered by other forces.

So when we remove electromagnetic forces (magnetic = electric), a few things should happen. First of all, electrons (-) and protons (+) should say hasta la viesta because + and - attract due to electromagnetic force. But now that's gone, so oh well.

You'd have some major radiation due to all of these electrons flying everywhere, which should kill you (that's somewhat what radiation is).

You'd have, I think, protons still sticking together and neutrons in there as well. The catch though is that they will be more dense with little to stop them from getting denser.

You might not even have neutrons at all: neutrons form from electrons and protons forced together, which has more mass and neutral charge. But what holds together neutrons? I think that'd be electromagnetism, which is gone.

However, neutrons may still exist due to gravitational pull inside of massively dense objects like neutron stars.

I do believe that at this point, if most of what I have said is true, then matter wouldn't exist with atoms. However, if matter does stay in some deranged way, then you might come to realization that it doesn't affect the main pillars of physics too badly. Relativity relies, indeed, on the speed of light, yes, but other than that, it should still work. Quantum Theory should also work, it would just affect some of our calculations and such. And chaos theory should still be itself, as chaos theory, and generally it should prove to work 'normally', whatever that's supposed to mean. If I'm wrong about this, do excuse my understanding because it is not extremely thorough.

Interestingly enough, I'd like to point out that light relies on electromagnetism to work the way it does and that without it, light may not even exist. In fact, electromagnetic radiation may not exist. Unless the universe comes up with a substitute, as I will discuss.

Without light, what do we have? "I think, therefore I am" -Descartes

Without light, you can't observe the universe in a fundamental way. Yes, we have the blind, but this is different. In a way, quantum theory's uncertainty principle relies on this idea of what we know and what we don't. Being unable to observe the universe in one of the main ways that life does, the uncertainty principle puts some majorly weird quantum mechanics into the world. For example, you might place a cup on a table, but without being able to observe the cup, it may be anywhere. (even off of the Earth or further) (Related to the problem of something going through two doors when you don't look)

But besides that, we have string theory. Essentially, the universe is an orchestra, with a set of notes to play. The universe may play any notes in any order to produce anything, but there is a limit. It only gets some notes to use. That is, it creates the 4 forces named at the beginning and only those forces. It creates matter as we know it, but it is limited to only certain elements, certain types of matter. The grand orchestra of the universe has its rules, according to string theory.

But when the universe decides to stop with electromagnetism, it means it full stop on certain notes, or chords, or whatever. This means the effect will be catastrophic. From what I understand, your end spells no beginning as far as new notes for the universe's orchestra.

What this means is that many of the universe's fundamental properties simply disappear altogether, related to electromagnetism in a direct way or not.

So the effect is a lot stranger than first appears.

As a side note, the 4 forces contain symmetry, something that would no longer exist without magnetism, which may have its own effects on the universe.