So they just got this giant magnet thats supposedly able to lift an aircraft carrier to France. How do they move something like that??

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So they just got this giant magnet thats supposedly able to lift an aircraft carrier to France. How do they move something like that??

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The question is better rephrased as how do they move an electro magnet that weights 220,000 pounds (110 tons) and is a 4.25 metre-wide cylinder that is 1 story tall. The answer is a piece of specialty equipment a semi with trailer that has 24 axles (so 48 wheels) and will only be moved at night.

[I mean here is a 120 ton transport](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Jua-hKY3siM/maxresdefault.jpg), just looks like a normal semi trailer but longer with way more wheels. Looks like they are using an unloaded modern US aircraft carrier as they are saying 90,000 tons so this thing when completed can “lift” 136 times it’s own weight as they are talking about the completed magnet with all 6 segments when powered up.

[Edit: I found a drawing of what it will look like being moved in this article.](https://www.graphicnews.com/en/pages/41484/science-building-the-worlds-most-powerful-magnet)

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

They’re using custom trucks and boats.

Source: [I read an article.](https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnpjm/this-magnet-can-lift-an-aircraft-carrier-and-will-attempt-nuclear-fusion)

> The module will be loaded into a special 24-axle transport vehicle that will drive only at night due to its sheer size until it reaches the coast of Texas, where it will be placed on a ship due to arrive in Marseilles, France, in late August.

Keep in mind they’re not *using* the magnet to move an aircraft carrier. It’d be a lot easier to just use the aircraft carrier’s engines to move it. This magnet is a part of what scientists hope will be the first viable fusion reactor. “Viable” here means it takes less energy to operate it than it generates.

News articles are just pointing out this magnet has enough power that if we put it on a sci-fi crane that had enough material strength for the load, this magnet could lift so much weight an aircraft carrier is the closest thing to that weight.

But this magnet isn’t for lifting things. It’s for helping contain the same kind of reaction that’s happening inside the sun. That takes a lot of strength.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s an electromagnet. When the electricity is switched on the magnet part is magnetized. When the electricity is switched off no magnetism is present. So to move it you are just moving metal parts that are not magnetized.

Electromagnets are a different from permanent magnets. Electromagnets are made of coils of wire with electricity passing through them. Moving charges create magnetic fields, so when the coils of wire in an electromagnet have an electric current passing through them, the coils behave like a magnet.

(Copied this last para from here https://ece.northeastern.edu/fac-ece/nian/mom/electromagnets.html)