How Magneto's Forcefield Would Work In Real Life...

I found this article. In short it says that due to the circular way magnetic fields move, a bullet shot at you would be deflected to the side, not blocked. It would be held inside the field spinning around you or let loose like a boomerang or allowed to spin around until gravity forced it to the ground. Of course to do that you would need to charge it positively so that it would ionize, for that you need X-rays.

The problem with a magnetic field is that, to an electric charge, it must apply a force orthogonally to both the field and the motion of the charge. In the case of a charge being fired to the north, in a magnetic field pointed downwards, then the force would push the bullet to the west. This means the field would not be able to stop the bullet or push it backwards, but it could deflect the bullet to the side, spin it around and shoot it backwards, or trap in in circular motion until gravity pulls it to the ground.

A magnetic field for self-defense seems very plausible, but there is one problem remaining: most bullets used today are charge-neutral. If you can charge a charge-neutral bullet between the time it's fired and the time it enters the magnetic field, then the field would be able to affect it. The reality is, a flying bullet is charged to some extent just by friction against the gun barrel and against the air, according to Dr. David Newman, professor of Physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but it could be charged much more thoroughly by exposing it to ionizing radiation, such as X-rays or Gamma-rays. These waves have high enough energy to remove an electron from an object, leaving it with a positive charge.

The final result is this: an armed assassin breaks into your living room and aims his pistol at you. You push a button on your watch, activating X-rays firing across the room and Holtzhelm coils above and below. The assassin fires, the bullet passes through the X-ray stream and leaves positively charged. It then enters the magnetic field and turns in a circle, leaving the magnetic field at almost the same speed at which it entered, passes through the X-rays again and finally hits the assassin in the chest, both wounding him and discharging on him. You are almost entirely unharmed, save for some limited and brief exposure to X-rays.

Wow, neat-o. Definitely something to look into for developing magnet-based characters.

@lorbo:

Lady Luck from MGS2

That's how her force field worked....

However...

Magneto's forcefield works different.

And we would have to have many many more years to be able to create such technologies because Magneto's powers isn't all about MAGNETS.

His powers are based solely on the entire field and spectrum of the Electromagnetic Fundamental Force. He can do just like the OP mentioned, but that is too vulnerable for him, so instead, he advances it up. Since he is able to control all frequency of the EM field and particles that are related to it, he can create light and bend it. But just creating a light isn't going to protect him so he renders it transparent just so you can see a little bit of him and he can see you. As the light is wrapped around him like a ball, he can solidify the light structure through frequency and the particles of light would condense into a solid forcefield.

Think about THE DOCTOR in Star Trek Voyager...

A solid hologram!

This is why objects and energies seem to bounce or be blocked or absorbed whenever hitting Magneto' forcefield.

But Magneto also gets hit by explosions.....

What causes Magneto's ears not to bust and bleed as a Tank or a Nuke fires and explodes at him?

Sure the construct will protect him from the physical blast.... (Will explain radiation soon) But what about his hearing?

Well, Electromagnetism controls sounds too!

Via molecules..

but molecules are made up out of atoms and atoms carry the Electromagnetic particle, the Electron. Sound is molecules vibrating, but a molecule can not vibrate if an electron isn't vibrating. Magneto can negate that, or he can actually bend, refract or reflect sounds.

This is what he does, scientifically, when object blow up only 6 feet away from his own person.

As far as radiation goes? How does Magneto survive X-Rays, Gamma Rays, etc when exposed to them? Even if his body is shielded by a blast of a nuclear explosion, shouldn't the high frequency radiation waves evaporate him on the spot?

Well he uses his body as a channeling device and medium for the entire electromagnetic field, if anything, he absorbs these energies and uses it later as a reserve. One might wonder however, if he has a limit, but tanking several nukes at point blank range is pretty much suggesting that he can absorb those energy. The only that takes a toll to his powers are his own mind!

His powers ARE PSIONIC afterall. =)

F**king magnets.

@7am_Waking_Up_In_The_Morning:

I like a character to go by his name sake. Anyway if a guy could only control magnetic fields, not all that other stuff, here is what you could do.

Levitate yourself and anything else non-ferromagnetic.

Make a magnetic field large enough to fry circuitry.

Rotate ferromagnetic metals around you. Not by levitation mind you, they would just rotate around you, even if only sliding across the ground.

You might be able to channel electricity to you and hold it between your hands in a magnetic bottle, even releasing it. You could get electricity from sources of it, like technology.

Other than that you could not do much else. So the only danger you would present is levitating and dropping stuff and throwing electric bolts after getting a c

What you could NOT do: Stop bullets, because most all bullets are non-magnetic metals.

@lorbo: Magneto's name is relevant to his powers which is again relevant to his name's sake because Magnetism is a form of Electromagnetism.

@lorbo said:

What you could NOT do: Stop bullets, because most all bullets are non-magnetic metals.

Bullets or even plastic bullets can be stopped by magnetism or electro-magnetism.

If a bullet was made out of plastic for example, all Magneto has to do is generate static electricity to stop the bullet.

Magneto stops plastic/ceramic missiles in the air and disassembles them.

How did he do that in the scan?

Magnetism....

Magneto opens up the Earth with magnetism.

@7am_Waking_Up_In_The_Morning:

I won't lie...that video was totally awesome. But I suspect there was a magnet inside that disc. That is the only way it was able to stick to that glass with metal in it.

If I were writing magneto he would be much like the OP.

Utilizing X-rays to ionize metals and then blocking any oncoming bullets. His only other metal feats would be rotating them around himself at high speed and knocking out electrical circuits.

Nonetheless I appreciate your insightful video.

: )

This is a longer version with nice music I might add : )

;)