For now I am still wearing them. I noticed I make more typing errors when wearing a ring on my fingers. but that's more about wearing a ring than it being a magnet.
I would say it was a neat experience but not one that is required to be carried out personally. similar to a rollercoaster - its possible to know a lot of what it feels like without going on one. (overall no)
I would consider it the kind of thing you want to leave in a science museum. so people can try them and go "thats how it works!" then get over it and go about their lives. not something worth spending money on for yourself.
A novelty thats cool to try, not one each person need own. Another example might be a lava lamp. after owning one for a while you stop bothering to turn it on.
A science museum amortizes the cost of the demonstration across many people, but that only works for short demonstrations. If you need to play with the rings for a week or a month, they don't fit in a museum. But you can amortize the cost of lava lamp with your friends: after you get bored of it, pass it on. This is harder with a ring because of sizing. Also, if they weaken after two months.
I would have said a set or so for 10mins would show you some of the fun stuff, but also should be enough. Heck - a "rent them" sorta policy. two rings, $5 to play, $50 deposit. You can keep the rings but you can also give them back for the deposit.
How about amortizing it among LessWrong users? If there are enough interested people we can pool up to buy a pair, each one in the pool gets to keep it for (say) a month, and then mails it in an envelope to the next guy. Maybe everyone has to write an experience report as a Less Wrong comment, too.
I am not against the idea but also in the US they are quite reasonably priced. I had to pay shipping to far away, shipping was almost as much as the rings.
The point of my post was a that its a null-experiment (AKA - don't bother trying it because it wasn't that exciting). If I don't share the fact that it was actually not worthwhile, someone else motivated to do it won't know it has already been reported on.
I've been wearing a magnetic ring for a long time now, and my experiences are more or less the same. I have only one though; maybe I'll buy one for my other hand so I can play with the magnetic field too.
One thing to watch out for is magnetic keycards. My debit card doesn't have any problems (yet), and it's several years old; but the last 2 summers I've had to get the keycard for my hotel door remagnetized a few times. And yeah, if you're cleaning things with steel wool, you get tiny sharp pieces of it stuck on the ring, that are quite difficult to get off. I also take my ring off in bed, because our headboard consists of metal bars, and the ring tended to be attracted to it with a loud *ting* and wake up my husband.
glad I am not the only one. I have not noticed the keycards problem yet. I take the rings off for metal shards when I know I am about to work around them.
Interesting for sure, but I don't think rings can match the level of a magnet that's implanted beneath the skin. Must be at least a factor of 100 in terms of sensitivity, the magnet on the inside will vibrate in very close proximity to the nerves in your fingers, way more fidelity. I can feel loads on fairly weak appliances, very easily determine ferrous vs non-ferrous--including the degree to which a material is ferrous. Most of the time I forget all about them, until I randomly feel the vibration and realize I'm close to a field. I noticed you said you couldn't really feel laptop charger/transformers, I can definitely perceive these with an internal magnet; At this point the magnet feels as if it's a part of me, I would very much notice and miss it if for some reason I woke up without it tomorrow. I definitely wouldn't recommend parylene or titanium nitride coatings, both have been absolute disasters in terms of coatings that fail after a year or two. Titanium is the best by far, second place implant grade silicone. Been about 4 years for me and I can still lift the heaviest object I could (USB flash drive) when I first had it put in. Definitely don't want to do this procedure to/by yourself, depending on your location, I would very very much recommend local anesthesia via lidocaine (legal grey area for body mod artists, as they aren't licensed anesthesiologists), but I would absolutely recommend it. I've been told it's a very very painful procedure, scalpel slicing open your finger and then cutting tissue out to make the "pocket" for the magnet, with lidocaine however, I felt 0 pain whatsoever. I believe it causes much less trauma and therefore a better healing process, but that's not something I can prove with hard data as it doesn't exist.
I wanted to go buy some rings to play with, but they don't come in a full range of sizes (the smallest one is a size and a half bigger than my wedding ring) and also the shopping cart doesn't seem to work. Is there anyplace else that sells them?
I didn't want to be an advertisement so I didn't (mean to) link. (woops). Try ebay for magic rings, or magnetic rings, also aliexpress, also you can email the guy at supermagnetman and ask for other sizes. I would suggest going on the tight-side of sizes because they like to pull themselves off when they find metal to attract to.
I have been wearing a black epoxy coated and a silver one, and I do a hell of a lot with my hands, so I expected the coatings to come off. which happened. I figured this would happen, so FYI.
Update: I bought some rings. They're okay. It's pretty hard to play with them and keep them from snapping to surfaces, and their sensitivity is pretty low - to get them close enough to stuff that you can feel them pulling is to get them about half an inch from the point where they'll hit the thing they're grabbing. My coating hasn't come off yet but I've only had them for a couple hours. They can make my computer go to sleep, which I already knew was a magnets thing because I wear magnetically clasped watches. I don't feel like I have an interesting new sense, but I have an interesting if alas delicate fidget toy, and my roommates have played with them too. Would not buy again, do not plan to go through the hassle of figuring out how to return.
Does anyone have or know anyone with a magnetic finger implant who can compare experiences? I've been considering the implant. If the ring isn't much weaker, that would be a good alternative.
I have two magnetic implants, and would be happy to answer questions (see also the AMA I did about two years ago: https://reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vvg7j/ ).
The sensations are as OP described, though mine are small enough that I don't have any issues with knives/ferrous materials moving to stick to my fingers. Judging by OP's 20cm range on microwaves, this smaller size is negated by the fact that my magnets sit a lot closer to the nerves - I believe we feel just about the same strength of fields.
Some friends of my are into dancing holding objects burning on the other side - fans, pendulums and sticks - sorry, don't know what you call it in English:( Fire shows? Burning oneself is always a threat. Would you think it is possible to make safer (or showier) equipment using weak magnet shapes and crowns? To repel the lighted ends from the person's head, for example.
Play with some (pure) golden items. Is there a way to sense them? Is there a way to influence them even?
Perhaps some prospectors will be interested in your findings.
Interesting! It's not the same thing as what happens when a magnet is attracted to a ferrous metal, though. As they explain in the comments, the magnet falling through the pipe creates a current in the copper, making it an electromagnet. That should work with any metal, also gold; but it identifies a metal only as a metal, you wouldn't be able to tell which one (maybe if you made sufficiently precise measurements you could tell by the strength of the magnetic field, but we're talking about someone wearing a magnetic ring, not about lab setups). You couldn't use it to tell if some ore contained gold.
But now I'm wondering what would happen if you drop a piece of non-ferrous metal through a magnetic pipe... A ring is a very short pipe though; to see any effects you'd probably have to film it and play it in slow motion, so it wouldn't be very useful for prospecting either.
This is the basis for metal detectors, anyway. Golden pieces should have been detectable (and movable) by magnets, provided there is magnetic field, strong enough.
Some calculations just how strong and what the whole structure should have been - are necessary. But it should have been possible to make some magnetic gadget for gold "panning".
it should have been possible to make some magnetic gadget for gold "panning".
Provided that gold is the only metal in your ore. That is usually not the case.
You are wrong here. Wikipedia has this to say:
Gold occurs principally as a native metal, usually alloyed to a greater or lesser extent with silver (as electrum), or sometimes with mercury (as an amalgam). Native gold can occur as sizeable nuggets, as fine grains or flakes in alluvial deposits, or as grains or microscopic particles embedded in other rocks.
To form eddy currents you need enough metal in which to form them. If you have ever seen the experiment with the pipe above - vs the same with a slit in the pipe to lower the number of currents that can form - there is a considerable loss of currents forming.
Compared to natural ores - to be able to produce currents that can be felt is going to be difficult.
I have a few iron ore rocks that midly stick the the rings. but they barely support their own mass against gravity.
Compared to natural ores
Gold comes mostly in elementary gold particles, nuggets. That's why it's probably possible to fish it this way. (Perhaps a few people do just that and don't talk too much about it from obvious reasons.)
Following on from a few threads about superpowers and extra sense that humans can try to get; I have always been interested in the idea of putting a magnet in my finger for the benefits of extra-sensory perception.
Stories (occasional news articles) imply that having a magnet implanted in a finger in a place surrounded by nerves imparts a power of electric-sensation. The ability to feel when there are electric fields around. So that's pretty neat. Only I don't really like the idea of cutting into myself (even if its done by a professional piercing artist).
Only recently did I come across the suggestion that a magnetic ring could impart similar abilities and properties. I was delighted at the idea of a similar and non-invasive version of the magnetic-implant (people with magnetic implants are commonly known as grinders within the community). I was so keen on trying it that I went out and purchased a few magnetic rings of different styles and different properties.
Interestingly the direction that a magnetisation can be imparted to a ring-shaped object can be selected from 2 general types. Magnetised across the diameter, or across the height of the cylinder shape. (there is a 3rd type which is a ring consisting of 4 outwardly magnetised 1/4 arcs of magnetic metal suspended in a ring-casing. and a few orientations of that system).
I have now been wearing a Neodymium ND50 magnetic ring from supermagnetman.com for around two months. The following is a description of my experiences with it.
When I first got the rings, I tried wearing more than one ring on each hand, I very quickly found out what happens when you wear two magnets close to each other. AKA they attract. Within a day I was wearing one magnet on each hand. What is interesting is what happens when you move two very strong magnets within each other's magnetic field. You get the ability to feel a magnetic field, and roll it around in your hands. I found myself taking typing breaks to play with the magnetic field between my fingers. It was an interesting experience to be able to do that. I also found I liked the snap as the two magnets pulled towards each other and regularly would play with them by moving them near each other. For my experiences here I would encourage others to use magnets as a socially acceptable way to hide an ADHD twitch - or just a way to keep yourself amused if you don't have a phone to pull out and if you ever needed a reason to move. I have previously used elastic bands around my wrist for a similar purpose.
The next thing that is interesting to note is what is or is not ferrous. Fridges are made of ferrous metal but not on the inside. Door handles are not usually ferrous, but the tongue and groove of the latch is. metal railings are common, as are metal nails in wood. Elevators and escalators have some metallic parts. Light switches are often plastic but there is a metal screw holding them into the wall. Tennis fencing is ferrous, the ends of usb cables are sometimes ferrous and sometimes not. The cables are not ferrous. except one I found. (they are probably made of copper)
Breaking technology
I had a concern that I would break my technology. That would be bad. overall I found zero broken pieces of technology. In theory if you take a speaker which consists of a magnet and an electric coil and you mess around with its magnetic field it will be unhappy and maybe break. That has not happened yet. The same can be said for hard drives, magnetic memory devices, phone technology and other things that rely on electricity. So far nothing has broken. What I did notice is that my phone has a magnetic-sleep function on the top left. i.e. it turns the screen off to hold the ring near that point. For both benefit and detriment depending on where I am wearing the ring.
Metal shards
I spend some of my time in workshops that have metal shards lying around. sometimes they are sharp, sometimes they are more like dust. They end up coating the magnetic ring. The sharp ones end up jabbing you, and the dust just looks like dirt on your skin. in a few hours they tend to go away anyways, but it is something I have noticed
magnetic strength
Over the time I have been wearing the magnets their strength has dropped off significantly. I am considering building a remagnetisation jig, but have not started any work on it. obviously every time I ding something against it, every time I drop them - the magnetisation decreases a bit as the magnetic dipoles reorganise.
knives
I cook a lot. Which means I find myself holding sharp knives fairly often. The most dangerous thing that I noticed about these rings is that when I hold a ferrous knife in the normal way I hold a knife, the magnet has a tendency to shift the knife slightly or at a time when I don't want it to. That sucks. Don't wear them while playing with sharp objects like knives. the last think you want to do is accidentally have your carrot-cutting turn into a finger-cutting event. What is interesting as well is that some cutlery is made of ferrous metal and some is not. also sometimes parts of a piece of cutlery are ferrous and some are non-ferrous. i.e. my normal food-eating knife set has a ferrous blade part and a non-ferrous handle part. I always figured they were the same, but the magnet says they are different materials. Which is pretty neat. I have found the same thing with spoons sometimes. the scoop is ferrous and the handle is not. I assume it would be because the scoop/blade parts need extra forming steps so need to be a more work-able metal. Cheaper cutlery is not like this.
The same applies to hot pieces of metal. Ovens, stoves, kettles, soldering irons... When they accidentally move towards your fingers, or your fingers are compelled to be attracted to them. Thats a slightly unsafe experience.
electric-sense
You know how when you run a microwave it buzzes, in a *vibrating* sorta way. if you put your hand against the outside of a microwave you will feel the motor going. Yea cool. So having a magnetic ring means you can feel that without touching the microwave from about 20cm away. There is a variability to it, better microwaves have more shielding on their motors and are leak less. I tried to feel the electric field around power tools like a drill press, handheld tools like an orbital sander, computers, cars, appliances, which pretty much covers everything. I also tried servers and the only thing that really had a buzzing field was a UPS machine (uninterupted power supply). Which was cool. Only other people had reported that any transformer - i.e. a computer charger would make that buzz. I also carry a battery block with me and that had no interesting fields. Totally not exciting. As for moving electrical charge. Cant feel it. If powerpoints are receiving power - nope. not dying by electrocution - no change.
boring superpower
There is a reason I call magnetic rings a boring superpower. The only real super-power I have been imparted is the power to pick up my keys without using my fingers. and also maybe hold my keys without trying to. As superpowers go - thats pretty lame. But kinda nifty. I don't know. I wouldn't insist people do it for the life-changing purposes.
Did I find a human-superpower? No. But I am glad I tried it.
Any questions? Any experimenting I should try?