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Dear Mayor Bloomberg, How Do Magnets Work?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 4, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 4, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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During his weekly radio show with John Gambling on WOR this morning, Mayor Bloomberg took questions from listeners via Twitter using the hash tag #askmike. Between answering questions about the class size for proposed NYPD academy schedule and what can be done to make housing more affordable, the Mayor took some time out to address the age-old question once posed by the Insane Clown Posse: "Fucking magnets? How do they work?"
Bloomberg was particularly interested in this question—in answering it, he revealed that he studied physics in school and became an electrical engineering student, adding, "nobody ever thinks I was an electrical engineer, because there was a German requirement and after a few days in German class I decided...I’m struggling with Spanish, and German I never could have done." But it seems that the Mayor took some time to think over an articulate, serious answer to the magnets question:
Okay, well as you probably know, everything is made up of atoms and atoms have electrons, usually in pairs orbiting around them. And they create mini magnetic fields. But the two electrons spin in orbit as pairs, spin in opposite directions so they cancel out each other. But magnetic materials aren’t in pairs, so the spins don’t cancel out each other, and if there’s enough of them in creates a magnetic field. Is there anything else you wanted to know?
Well, now we know that after he loses a Presidential race or two, the Mayor definitely has a future as a guest expert on WNYC's "The Leonard Lopate Show" for the segment "Please Explain." There were more twitter questions than there was time to answer them, so we're a little sad he didn't get to respond to this one: "When you ride the subway to work and see grown-ups reading Harry Potter, do you think it's pathetic or endearing?"
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magnets
mayor bloomberg
questions
radio
science
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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