Alternatively, what would happen if the loss of magnetism instead happened gradually over a period of time?

  • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    If you mean a complete absence of the electromagnetic force, then chemistry and physics are going to get very disastrous for us very quickly

  • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    You’re talking about a change in one of the fundamental forces that govern the universe. Things would start falling apart at the atomic level, including in your brain. I don’t know that you would remain conscious for long enough to observe anything. I don’t think anyone could tell you what would happen because we’d literally have to re-calculate physics without electromagnetism. I don’t even know that that’s within the scope of human imagination.

    • Humanius@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Electricity generation would suddenly also get a lot harder. Without dynamos I think the only real option becomes solar panels.

    • notsure@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      …magnets is quite general, but i believe it counts, and yeah, fucking everything stops…

  • notsure@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    …more than just the magnets… …it’s all electromagnetic pulses… …even brain-thought… …everything would stop…

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    Magnetism is “just” the ability of some elements to line up their fields so that the effects are felt beyond their electron shells. It’s much more complex than that, but magnetism is in all matter, just some more than others. For it to stop at any rate would be like changing a constant of the universe. I would imagine very quickly things would be very different and we wouldn’t be around to witness it.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Electricity and magnetism are the exact same thing. A non moving charge creates an observed static electric field. A moving charge creates an observed magnetic field. So if you were moving next to the charge as it went down a wire, you would see no charge moving. No charge moving means no magnetic field.

    They only look different because things get distorted moving at near light speed relative to you. It would be like if we gave two different names to a police siren based on whether you were listening standing next to it or listening as it zoomed past you.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    You would hard pressed to learn about the details without electricity and communication networks.

  • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    We just lost all data still being stored on magnetic drives and mediums.

    Compasses just became useless.

    A lot of medical and scientific equipment suddenly stopped working.

    The MagSafe charger on my computer just fell off.

  • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Rather than listing all of the ways modern life and society would collapse it’d be easier to just say this:

    Your ability to understand the world would in an instant be limited to the people that immediately surround you and you’d better quickly think of a way to find a clean water source, some land, grab an “Agriculture for Dummies” book, and some form of weapon to defend your new homestead with your new tribe.

      • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Well is this about permanent magnets loosing their functionality or the whole concept of magnetism just vanishing?

        One puts us back to a steampunk technological ceiling the other means the universe pops out of existence; electricity, magnetism, and light are closely linked so removing one is likely to just break reality.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    generally speaking, mass chaos and hysteria and then nothingness.

    if we exclude the possibility of “magic” doing it, and instead focus on the realistic causes of a loss of magnetism the chances for just magnets to be directly impacted are low.

    that is, the strength of phenomena that would be required for all magnets in the world to cease functioning it would also likely cause the magnetic cohesion of molecules and atoms to break. this breakdown at the atomic and subatomic level would cause a chain reaction where we would both cease to exist and explode with enough energy to destroy the universe.

    if any atoms of you survived at all, they would be flung to the outer reaches of the universe in seconds only for the entirety of the universe to be sucked into the void such an explosion caused. it would probably be something akin to a big bang.

  • Bwaz@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    According to Trump, a rainstorm would cause that to happen. But wouldn’t put out the fire that is Portland.