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Magnetics as Flight; Could it work?
Topic Started: Jan 16 2010, 08:36 PM (736 Views)
lemming98
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After I watched Avatar,

(Most animals were awesome, but like most people here, the Navi were a disapointment)

I was thinking about Unobatamium on other worlds besides pandora, while I was watching one of the X-men movies.

When I saw the scene were the Antagonist (big word) pulls the Iron out of the security guards body I though about What would Happen to animals with unobatamium in their blood or body?

I immediatly began to imagine Kite-like aliens equiped with sacks of unobatamuim keeping them aloft, floating through the sky.

Could this work?

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ATEK Azul
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Well I beleave magnetic powered flight is possible but with out something like Unobtanium it would be quite hard to accomplish.

But since you have Unobtanium I beleave with a certain amount stored in areas through out the body flight could be obtained. Though this will take some interesting adaptations inorder to fly and land or even move in a different direction. Also the body needs to be able to process, get and store this substance.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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lemming98
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I heard about the "field guide" to pandora, if anyone has it, do you know if unobatamium is radioactive? If it is it would be much harder to store in large quatities of it inside an organism body if it is.

I have no idea how they would decrease or increase their height.
Edited by lemming98, Jan 16 2010, 09:06 PM.

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Venatosaurus
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No, the unobtanium is not radioactive. Though I would feel the superconductivity and super-magnetism would not fare well for the animal. Any magnetic fluxes or anomalies could affect the animals in a negative way. Also if the animal has a high concentration of unobtanium , it may distort the magnetic field (though I doubt any animal would have that much of the concentrated mineral), and cause a magnetic funnel that would channel incoming particle from the sun, which can have disasterous effects on any animals caught in the sight of one, especially an animal that is essentially its own magnet ! But then again that's what happens on Pandora, it's totally up in the air whether it would occur on another planet.



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Kingpin
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As long as the creature had something to steady itself with. You'll notice that when you try to make a magnet float above another, due to their repelling poles, one magnet always ends up shooting off in another direction. The creature would have to glide from magnetic deposit to magnetic deposit to stay airborne, however. Landing on these deposits would be impossible.
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Ànraich
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Imagine if they did though, and what else it could be used besides flight (which is totally possible, btw). It could be used for specialized neural cells to make a super-fast brain that works with magnetism and superconductivity rather than synapses and bioelectricity.

As for the flying, perhaps the brain would be a product of such a thing. It takes a complex brain to control flight, and with magnetic flight you could achieve incredible speed. Think about it; you can have a more streamlined shape because you don't even need wings. They could become teardrop shaped, or even bullet shaped and look more like biological spaceships than animals. Perhaps there could even be biological spaceships.
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Oceaniis
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Superconductors are fixed to the magnetic field, so those animals would have many problems to move... Hallelujah are stationary
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T.Neo
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The Hallelujah mts. apparently move around constantly, thanks to wind currents.
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lemming98
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A possibiltiy is that these organism have a electro magnets, maybe a form of unobatamium that de magnetised till it gets a shock. THis would allow it move up or down and to feed on the unobatamium ore it could just demagnetise and magenetize to slow it's progression. I don't know if this would work but it was just a concept.

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Holben
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It could use hydrogen sacs to control ascent.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

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Ànraich
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Perhaps they could float via magnetic and move around with air sifting? Perhaps even biological jets?
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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T.Neo
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Or wings/fins/flaps?

I don't see a magnetic animal being possible, but it still has an awesome cool factor. :)
A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Cool=unlikely, sadly.

But it is uncertain as to the probability of anything, so it's possible.

You'd have to have a rather mighty energy source.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Another point that makes it unlikely is that there are much more effective ways to go about flight, that don't have as serious of drawbacks as magnetic flight. The control required to keep from spinning around so that opposite poles come together would be astounding, and very difficult for the first creatures to try this feat.
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food for thought
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T.Neo
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Cool=unlikely, sadly.


Are macropredators cool? Yes. Are the unlikely? Given the right circumstances, not in the least.

Cool doesn't have to mean unlikely, but it often does.
A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork.
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