Magnetic Sense

A month ago Wired ran a story about people implanting tiny magnets in their fingertips so they can feel magnetic fields. Suddenly they can sense AC current in electrical cords, electric motors, the fields given off by transformers, and anti-theft gates in stores. Very intriguing, but stories of infected fingers and broken magnet pieces embedded under the skin didn’t sound fun.

Today as I was cleaning junk off my desk I found a tiny magnet. This suggested an experiment: would simply gluing the magnet to my finger be enough for me to feel magnetic fields? Super glue seemed the obvious choice but after two dried-out tubes I had to settle for wood glue.

Surprisingly, it actually worked. I could feel the motors running inside my electric razor. I could sense the AC current in the cord for our toaster oven, and could feel when the oven’s thermostat clicked on & off. The strongest field I found was from the AC adapter for our handheld vacuum. I could feel it from several inches away. Very, very cool.

Update: Lots of question from diggers, so let’s get some answers up:

Why? Because the idea of feeling magnetic fields intrigued me. What? You’ve never wanted to sense invisible magnetic fields? Never been jealous of geese with their internal compasses? Probably one of those things where if you have to ask, you’ll never understand.

Did I rip off my skin? No. It was only wood glue for goodness sake. I could barely get to to stay on my finger. I was originally going to try super glue but I couldn’t find any (all my tubes of super glue were dried out…why does that always happen?). Super glue isn’t that bad, though. The worst outcome is that you have a stupid magnet stuck to your finger for a few days. (I’m not responsible if you use too much glue and hurt yourself, don’t be stupid).

What about damaging your TV/floppy disks/credit cards/hamster? Well, just don’t go near your TV or credit cards while you have it glued on your finger. And who uses floppy disks anymore? Just use a little common sense: if you wouldn’t do it with a magnet, don’t do it with a magnet which is glued on your finger.

Why not use tape/band aid/something else? I tried tape, it didn’t seem to work. I think the glue did a better job of transmitting vibrations to my skin

What did it feel like? It felt like the magnet was buzzing, like a cell phone on vibrate but weaker. Another way to describe it is as a slight tingling.