Could a car powered by magnets be a viable alternative?

In a world where new energy alternatives are sought, especially for transportation vehicles, it is normal for new solutions to emerge every day. After all, if we can make cars more sustainable and efficient, why not try new ideas?

Recently one of these solutions stopped the internet. More specifically, a meme posted on X (formerly Twitter). Made in English, the picture shows a car that is attracted by a magnet in front of it but is connected to the rear of the car by a cable. The translation says: “Give me one reason why this wouldn’t work.” You can check out the original article below.

Could this really work? What could be the reasons why this is not the newest sustainable car model in the world? Quickly, physicists from around the world came forward to explain the situation. Below you can take a look at one of the most complete examples produced by the Jefferson Lab channel.

Could a magnetic car be possible?

Without further ado, let’s move on to the verdict on the magnetic car. No, it doesn’t work. And the explanation for this lies in Newton’s laws, proposed in the 17th century..

More specifically, the first and third Newtonian propositions are those that make the internet user’s bold project unrealizable. According to the first hypothesis, also known as Newton’s First Law of Motion, an object at rest will remain at rest unless an external force acts on it.

The third law says: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. You may also have heard of this as Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

As seen in the video above, a car powered by a magnet attached to it will form a single system even if it is placed in front of the vehicle with just a cable or rope. In this way, they do not apply force to any external object, they only attract and cancel each other. Therefore, the result of this experiment will be a stopped car..

The same idea wouldn’t work with an elastic band, for example. If you could place this on a fixed external device that was currently moving the car belonging to another system, the car would accelerate and move normally.

However, if this elastic band, which belongs to the same system, is pulled from the car’s sunroof, the car will remain motionless despite all the force applied by the catapult.

Therefore, as explained in the video, A car could move with magnets if another vehicle had a magnet in front of it.. Thus, it will no longer be in a closed system, it will be possible for one car to follow another.

Did you like the content? So how about learning why you shouldn’t use magnets to search for meteorites? For more curiosities like this, stay tuned to the TecMundo website and our social networks.