Need help writing character who possesses diamagnetism manipulation

[NativeAlien]

I am struggling to write a character who possesses diamagnetism manipulation. For those wondering what that is, look here: Diamagnetism Manipulation

Although I like Science-Fiction, I like it more when it leans more towards the Science side than the Fiction side. I understand you have to suspend disbelief when writing fictional stories, but I’ve noticed that people tend to like stories that are relatively more grounded (myself included). I’ve been trying to teach myself about electromagnetism for the past few weeks to add more realism to my story, but it’s so inaccessible to a layman. I basically need to be physicist to understand even the basics. So is there anyone that has an understanding of magnetism and diamagnetism that I could consult for assistance on writing this character with diamagnetic powers? Because I can’t even get past the foundational stuff by myself. For instance, I wanted the character to have a belt that could regulate his powers so he doesn’t repel everything around him uncontrollably, but I encountered several technical errors related to the belt’s material. If the belt’s material is paramagnetic (metal), it will heat up from the energy of being attracted to the character’s body, but then if the belt’s material is diamagnetic (non-metal), it will be repelled away from him and he won’t be able to wear it.

I am desperate for help and would appreciate any I could get. Thank you in advance

 

[ckatt]

I can't offer the best help on your particular issue but I can say that I have struggled with this type of thing myself. My current WIP is centred on a character with weak electrical powers that can be enhanced in certain situations. The more research I do the more complicated it gets. The problem is that even though I've made things as accurate as I can, most readers can't tell the difference. In fact, sometimes the reality is stranger than the average reader's knowledge and they complain, "that's not how electricity works," despite the fact that the science is sound. The solution to this is not to educate your readers. A small amount of exposition can go a long way but if the concepts require several pages of info to wrap one's head around, then it doesn't really matter anymore. I'd suggest you focus on telling the story you want to tell. Since no one has diamagnetism powers in real life, you're already asking your readers to accept one fantasy. So why not more if it smooths out the story?
Furthermore, the fact that the belt doesn't work as you want could be a great plot point. Devise a way that his belt has built-in cooling, but if he used the ability too much, it will still overheat. Powers with limits always create better tension, especially if they break down right when the character needs them the most.

 

[Flaviosky]

There are metals that are non-magnetic, so the belt could be made from an alloy that kind of balances both forces.

A small amount of exposition can go a long way but if the concepts require several pages of info to wrap one's head around, then it doesn't really matter anymore

A agree completely. Lore may trump the plot if it needs too much space.

Powers with limits always create better tension, especially if they break down right when the character needs them the most.

Agree again, but have it fail due to a belt not working may seem arbitrary, except if the belt overheats early in the story and the character overuses its power anyway.

 

[NativeAlien]

I can't offer the best help on your particular issue but I can say that I have struggled with this type of thing myself. My current WIP is centred on a character with weak electrical powers that can be enhanced in certain situations. The more research I do the more complicated it gets. The problem is that even though I've made things as accurate as I can, most readers can't tell the difference. In fact, sometimes the reality is stranger than the average reader's knowledge and they complain, "that's not how electricity works," despite the fact that the science is sound. The solution to this is not to educate your readers. A small amount of exposition can go a long way but if the concepts require several pages of info to wrap one's head around, then it doesn't really matter anymore. I'd suggest you focus on telling the story you want to tell. Since no one has diamagnetism powers in real life, you're already asking your readers to accept one fantasy. So why not more if it smooths out the story?
Furthermore, the fact that the belt doesn't work as you want could be a great plot point. Devise a way that his belt has built-in cooling, but if he used the ability too much, it will still overheat. Powers with limits always create better tension, especially if they break down right when the character needs them the most.

While I really do appreciate you taking the time to give me this advice, I must admit I kind of get a bit annoyed when someone says “It’s fantasy. Just do whatever you want. It’s your story.” While all that is true, there is clearly an unspoken rule that things should seem somewhat plausible. For instance, in The Dark Knight films, Batman’s cape is made of memory cloth, a fictional material that does actually have some solid science backing it (the reason it wouldn’t work in real-life being more of an issue of improbability rather than impossibility). I feel if they just said Batman’s cape works because of pixie dust, the audience would be taken aback by it since it’s an otherwise relatively grounded film. The reason I wanted to know the technicalities is because I have a part where the machine’s function (that ends up magnetizing the character) is explained via exposition.

 

[NativeAlien]

There are metals that are non-magnetic, so the belt could be made from an alloy that kind of balances both forces.


A agree completely. Lore may trump the plot if it needs too much space.


Agree again, but have it fail due to a belt not working may seem arbitrary, except if the belt overheats early in the story and the character overuses its power anyway.

Thank you. This is the type of answer I’m looking for. However, I’m worried about there being a plot hole if I make the belt an alloy, since the reason he needs the belt is to stabilize his powers so he doesn’t magnetize everything around him (which I assume would also include the alloy of the belt). Also, this may sound like a really dumb question, but how does polarity work in this case? I know on a bar magnet there’s a north and south pole, but since we’re dealing with a person, would they be all one charge? And if they’re able to attract/repel things, would that mean those things are also fully one charge and not dipole? Because I’m having a hard time imagining how one side of something could be repelled while the other side would be attracted? Especially when it’s irregularly-shaped scrap metal and not a bar magnet

 

[ckatt]

@NativeAlien
You misunderstand. I'm not suggesting that you just say "It's Fantasy" and give up.
I'm saying that since you already have one aspect the defies the laws of physics in our reality, you are going to have to find more creative ways to bend the rules if you want it to fit.

If you're looking for a more "scientific" answer to help solve your problem, I suggest you look at the difference between diamagnetism and paramagnetism and see if you can come up with a way for your character to balance these to his advantage.

In your Batman example, the reason pixie dust would be rejected is because it's "out of world" jargon. If they called it nano cloth or carbon filament cloth, or just made up a word, most people wouldn't bat an eyelash.
Those Batman films do a great job of appearing plausible, but the reality is they are no more plausible than a lot of other superhero movies out there. The difference is where they ask you to suspend your disbelieve. And if in your story you are asking your reader to do so at a level that most of them can't go, then all your hard work will be missed.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Sounds a bit Magneto-ish to me.

Then we have "The First Men in the Moon" - HGW.

Could they be sources of research though, in that you could see how they try and explain it.

 

[NativeAlien]

@NativeAlien
You misunderstand. I'm not suggesting that you just say "It's Fantasy" and give up.
I'm saying that since you already have one aspect the defies the laws of physics in our reality, you are going to have to find more creative ways to bend the rules if you want it to fit.

If you're looking for a more "scientific" answer to help solve your problem, I suggest you look at the difference between diamagnetism and paramagnetism and see if you can come up with a way for your character to balance these to his advantage.

In your Batman example, the reason pixie dust would be rejected is because it's "out of world" jargon. If they called it nano cloth or carbon filament cloth, or just made up a word, most people wouldn't bat an eyelash.
Those Batman films do a great job of appearing plausible, but the reality is they are no more plausible than a lot of other superhero movies out there. The difference is where they ask you to suspend your disbelieve. And if in your story you are asking your reader to do so at a level that most of them can't go, then all your hard work will be missed.

True. Sorry if it came off like I was dismissing your comment. Would you happen to know if there are people who take other people’s ideas and polish them up into full stories or build on outlines they are given? Because that may just be the avenue I’ll have to take. Because I honestly have no idea where to even begin with writing. I’m even willing to pay money. I have the basics like characters, names, locations, but as far as content, my well is dry. The fact I experience aphasia (due to a TBI) makes writer’s block worse than it already is

 

[NativeAlien]

Sounds a bit Magneto-ish to me.

Then we have "The First Men in the Moon" - HGW.

Could they be sources of research though, in that you could see how they try and explain it.

Somewhat. I’ll be sure to check out that reference

 

[Ursa major]

For instance, I wanted the character to have a belt that could regulate his powers so he doesn’t repel everything around him uncontrollably, but I encountered several technical errors related to the belt’s material. If the belt’s material is paramagnetic (metal), it will heat up from the energy of being attracted to the character’s body, but then if the belt’s material is diamagnetic (non-metal), it will be repelled away from him and he won’t be able to wear it.

I know this is a "for instance", but I'd be more worried about how a belt (as opposed to, say, a whole-body suit) could regulate the wearer's powers if, without any external control, he otherwise** has little or no control over it.

It seems to me that, if you want to go down the route of having a very good idea about how it all works, you should start with fully defining the power itself, taking into consideration what restrictions you want, or must, place on the power to make it controllable at all (and so not only in terms of what you want it to be able to do in your story).


As an aside, and regarding your mention of magnetic poles, have you considered making his power the result of his body (or some part thereof) becoming somehow host to magnetic monopoles (which are hypothetical but, as the Wikipedia article on them says,

the concept stems from particle theories, notably the grand unified and superstring theories, which predict their existence.

It strikes me that something both "predicted" by current scientific hypotheses (if one can call them that), which attends to your wish of wanting it to be science and not fantasy, and "hypothetical", which gives you room to manoeuvre, might be a useful starting point.



** - It also begs the question as to what he does before he obtains/makes the belt (or whatever it turns out to be). Does he make himself diamagnetic? Does he make the belt before he does so? How can he test it to see if it works without the power to test it on? Apart from "regulating" his power -- is this for safety or part of how he uses the power? -- what control does he have, i.e. can he stop the power working completely if the belt doesn't work as expected? Or has the power been bestowed upon him (in which case he may not know*** how the belt, or whatever it is, or even the power itself, works)?

*** - This may not satisfy you, but it may satisfy your readers.

 

[Wayne Mack]

Two things to consider.

One, the character's magnetic ability would likely be dependent upon the energy that he or she expends. This may mean that the power level is controllable by the character.

Two, mass may be a more defining characteristic of how the power can be used. It is the basic equal and opposite reactions. The same amount of force the character exerts on pulling something towards him or her is exerted in pulling the character in the opposite direction. This force would need to be offset by the character's leg muscles and contact with the ground. On an icy surface the character would go flying forward (that might be a desirable effect to use for escapes). Review some of the feats of strongmen, and one can see that by exerting a small amount of continual force, the character may also be able to move much more massive objects. Another effect to consider is that after attracting an object, it will dispel all of its momentum when it arrives at the character.

I hope this sparks some ideas that you can use.

 

[ckatt]

Because I honestly have no idea where to even begin with writing. I’m even willing to pay money.

There's loads of great resources here on Chrons available for free. And there are also many fantastic workshop you can attend online if you want to pay.
Folks around her often recommend Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer, Save the cat by Blake Snyder, the writing excuses podcast, and Brandon Sanderson's lectures on YouTube.

 

[chrispenycate]

From my years building loudspeakers I have a considerable knowledge of practical electromagnetism. Note that this is practical knowledge, not deep physics, and wandered off into magnetic tape, and railguns.

First comment is, with ferromagnetism it is a darn sight easier to get attraction than repulsion. Any odd grot lump of steel will try to rush toward any available magnetic field, alighning its magnetic domains as it goes, and any loose magnetic dipole will attempt to line up its magnetic field with an existing local attracion field. Getting a maglev repulsion train is considerably more difficult - the physics allows for it, but the engineering is less tolerant - easy enough to pull something's trajectory out of line, much more difficult (and frequently requiring large inputs of energy). Generally, your jagged lum of scrap is going to become magnetised, and if its field is not precisely aligned repulsive, is going to flip round for maximum attraction. - an axis that can be modified using energy to control it, but won't ever be a static push.

 

[Biskit]

Here you go, a physicist's perspective:

As others have indicated, you are digging yourself a hole trying to make diamagnetism manipulation realistic. It is a tiny effect and any "power" that manipulates it either has to create utterly massive magnetic fields, or change the fundamental nature of the affected materials, neither of which is realistic.

If you opt for a massive magnetic field then your character is going to be bombarded with every scrap of ferromagnetic material nearby. To put this in context, medical magnetic resonance scanners use high magnetic fields and generally have serious warnings about not taking metallic objects near them, but there are no easily observed paramagnetic or diamagnetic effects.

This is going to be further complicated by needing to know which materials are diamagnetic. In your initial post you seem to think that metal = paramagnetic and non-metal = diamagnetic, however there are diamagnetic metals, such as copper and gold. Down at a very small scale, there are molecules that might be paramagnetic or diamagnetic dependent on their state at the time. I have a lurking memory that proteins associated with haemoglobin can change between para and diamagnetic depending on conditions.

If the belt contained paramagnetic materials it would only heat up if the wearer was producing a varying magnetic field. Of greater concern would be the belt being attracted to the wearer's magnetic field, perhaps with enough force to cause fatal crush injuries.

You questioned whether your character would have a north and south magnetic pole, and the answer is absolutely yes. Magnetic monopoles have been predicted theoretically, but this is right on the edge of fundamental physics.

Regarding pixie dust vs memory material: I think you are confusing "realism" with "convention". No, you don't tell your audience that Batman's cloak works on pixie dust, just as you wouldn't tell the audience that Harry Potter's invisibility cloak works on para-quantum interference. From a story-telling point of view it makes zero difference, but pixie dust is for magic and fantasy whilst pseudo-scientific technobabble is for sci-fi, unless you are writing some sort of cross-over where you would explain that in fact pixie dust is a manifestation of para-quantum interference.

Overall, trying to develop a consistent and realistic system is going to be a huge challenge. My advice is to pick your super-power, chose clothes and tools to go with it, make it seem realistic with lashings of handwavium and then get on with telling the story.

 

[NativeAlien]

Here you go, a physicist's perspective:

As others have indicated, you are digging yourself a hole trying to make diamagnetism manipulation realistic. It is a tiny effect and any "power" that manipulates it either has to create utterly massive magnetic fields, or change the fundamental nature of the affected materials, neither of which is realistic.

If you opt for a massive magnetic field then your character is going to be bombarded with every scrap of ferromagnetic material nearby. To put this in context, medical magnetic resonance scanners use high magnetic fields and generally have serious warnings about not taking metallic objects near them, but there are no easily observed paramagnetic or diamagnetic effects.

This is going to be further complicated by needing to know which materials are diamagnetic. In your initial post you seem to think that metal = paramagnetic and non-metal = diamagnetic, however there are diamagnetic metals, such as copper and gold. Down at a very small scale, there are molecules that might be paramagnetic or diamagnetic dependent on their state at the time. I have a lurking memory that proteins associated with haemoglobin can change between para and diamagnetic depending on conditions.

If the belt contained paramagnetic materials it would only heat up if the wearer was producing a varying magnetic field. Of greater concern would be the belt being attracted to the wearer's magnetic field, perhaps with enough force to cause fatal crush injuries.

You questioned whether your character would have a north and south magnetic pole, and the answer is absolutely yes. Magnetic monopoles have been predicted theoretically, but this is right on the edge of fundamental physics.

Regarding pixie dust vs memory material: I think you are confusing "realism" with "convention". No, you don't tell your audience that Batman's cloak works on pixie dust, just as you wouldn't tell the audience that Harry Potter's invisibility cloak works on para-quantum interference. From a story-telling point of view it makes zero difference, but pixie dust is for magic and fantasy whilst pseudo-scientific technobabble is for sci-fi, unless you are writing some sort of cross-over where you would explain that in fact pixie dust is a manifestation of para-quantum interference.

Overall, trying to develop a consistent and realistic system is going to be a huge challenge. My advice is to pick your super-power, chose clothes and tools to go with it, make it seem realistic with lashings of handwavium and then get on with telling the story.

Awesome answer, thank you. I understand there are diamagnetic metals and metals that aren’t paramagnetic, but I guess I have trouble relating it to my story. Right now, I’m thinking the character starts out as a quantum physicist who tries committing suicide by turning on an atom smasher/particle accelerator and standing in front of it. However, his plan backfires and the machine, instead of killing him, irradiates his body with an electromagnetic charge that causes him to repel everything in sight uncontrollably. However, I am struggling to think of how the powers should work/what the limitations are.

 

[NativeAlien]

I know this is a "for instance", but I'd be more worried about how a belt (as opposed to, say, a whole-body suit) could regulate the wearer's powers if, without any external control, he otherwise** has little or no control over it.

It seems to me that, if you want to go down the route of having a very good idea about how it all works, you should start with fully defining the power itself, taking into consideration what restrictions you want, or must, place on the power to make it controllable at all (and so not only in terms of what you want it to be able to do in your story).


As an aside, and regarding your mention of magnetic poles, have you considered making his power the result of his body (or some part thereof) becoming somehow host to magnetic monopoles (which are hypothetical but, as the Wikipedia article on them says,

It strikes me that something both "predicted" by current scientific hypotheses (if one can call them that), which attends to your wish of wanting it to be science and not fantasy, and "hypothetical", which gives you room to manoeuvre, might be a useful starting point.



** - It also begs the question as to what he does before he obtains/makes the belt (or whatever it turns out to be). Does he make himself diamagnetic? Does he make the belt before he does so? How can he test it to see if it works without the power to test it on? Apart from "regulating" his power -- is this for safety or part of how he uses the power? -- what control does he have, i.e. can he stop the power working completely if the belt doesn't work as expected? Or has the power been bestowed upon him (in which case he may not know*** how the belt, or whatever it is, or even the power itself, works)?

*** - This may not satisfy you, but it may satisfy your readers.

I am considering dropping the part about the belt and just leaving his powers unregulated and uncontrollable.

 

[hitmouse]

I do a bit of stuff with MRI scanners, which work by influencing the state of the electrons around atoms ( the link in your op.)
The thing is, to achieve this in practice requires huge superconducting electromagnets and lots of power. The magnetic effects are spectacular and dangerous if any ferromagnetic objects are loose in the scanner room.

I agree with @Biskit here. Don’t get bogged down with trying to describe a scientific explanation which is ultimately bogus. Use the dilithium crystal get-out, and just enjoy telling the story.

 

[Biskit]

Awesome answer, thank you. I understand there are diamagnetic metals and metals that aren’t paramagnetic, but I guess I have trouble relating it to my story. Right now, I’m thinking the character starts out as a quantum physicist who tries committing suicide by turning on an atom smasher/particle accelerator and standing in front of it. However, his plan backfires and the machine, instead of killing him, irradiates his body with an electromagnetic charge that causes him to repel everything in sight uncontrollably. However, I am struggling to think of how the powers should work/what the limitations are.

The powers and their limitations are what you chose them to be.

I think you are still trying to make things "realistic" in a scenario which is actually completely unrealistic, but you have instinctively adopted the conventions of the genre with " the machine, instead of killing him, irradiates his body with an electromagnetic charge". The conventions are there for a simple, story-telling reason: reality does not generate super-powers.

The realistic outcome of a burst of radiation from a modern particle accelerator is either no effect, crippling illness or death, in order of likelihood.

One of the documented cases of exposure to a large burst of radiation comes from the development of the atomic bomb when one of the researchers was exposed to what is known as a criticality accident, when sufficient fissile material is gathered together to initiate a chain reaction. The researcher separated the offending materials before the incident could get out of control and saved his colleagues. What was documented was his death from radiation poisoning over a number of days.

When I was a research student, the UK go-to accelerator facility was the Synchrotron Radiation Source. These days it has been replaced with the Diamond Light Source, and to quote their web page, it produces "light 10 billion times brighter than the sun" directed down the beamlines, which sounds a lot and in bulk would do huge damage to human tissue, but so far as I know the power delivered by the beam is a fraction of a milliwatt, so quite tiny. You would get more serious damage holding an operating incandescent light bulb in your hand.

ETA
In the realm of realistic vs convention, "a quantum physicist who tries committing suicide by turning on an atom smasher/particle accelerator" is one hundred percent solid convention and utterly unrealistic. The only physicist I have actually known who committed suicide had access to all manner of high-power equipment that could have done the job, but what he chose was to hang himself.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Here you go, a physicist's perspective:

As others have indicated, you are digging yourself a hole trying to make diamagnetism manipulation realistic. It is a tiny effect and any "power" that manipulates it either has to create utterly massive magnetic fields, or change the fundamental nature of the affected materials, neither of which is realistic.

If you opt for a massive magnetic field then your character is going to be bombarded with every scrap of ferromagnetic material nearby. To put this in context, medical magnetic resonance scanners use high magnetic fields and generally have serious warnings about not taking metallic objects near them, but there are no easily observed paramagnetic or diamagnetic effects.

This is going to be further complicated by needing to know which materials are diamagnetic. In your initial post you seem to think that metal = paramagnetic and non-metal = diamagnetic, however there are diamagnetic metals, such as copper and gold. Down at a very small scale, there are molecules that might be paramagnetic or diamagnetic dependent on their state at the time. I have a lurking memory that proteins associated with haemoglobin can change between para and diamagnetic depending on conditions.

If the belt contained paramagnetic materials it would only heat up if the wearer was producing a varying magnetic field. Of greater concern would be the belt being attracted to the wearer's magnetic field, perhaps with enough force to cause fatal crush injuries.

You questioned whether your character would have a north and south magnetic pole, and the answer is absolutely yes. Magnetic monopoles have been predicted theoretically, but this is right on the edge of fundamental physics.

Regarding pixie dust vs memory material: I think you are confusing "realism" with "convention". No, you don't tell your audience that Batman's cloak works on pixie dust, just as you wouldn't tell the audience that Harry Potter's invisibility cloak works on para-quantum interference. From a story-telling point of view it makes zero difference, but pixie dust is for magic and fantasy whilst pseudo-scientific technobabble is for sci-fi, unless you are writing some sort of cross-over where you would explain that in fact pixie dust is a manifestation of para-quantum interference.

Overall, trying to develop a consistent and realistic system is going to be a huge challenge. My advice is to pick your super-power, chose clothes and tools to go with it, make it seem realistic with lashings of handwavium and then get on with telling the story.

I agree. No matter how much you aim for realism, the likelihood is that anyone with a good understanding of the subject will be able to pick holes in your theory - understandable as they may have had years of study whereas you have had weeks. But the chances are that the vast majority of your readers will have little to no understanding of diamagnetism.

The danger with aiming for scientific realism is that this is done at the sacrifice of the story. As long as your explanation is plausible enough in the universe you have created to suspend your reader's disbelief for the duration of the story, then this is all that is needed.

Superman can fly because Krypton had a lower gravity, Peter Parker has spider-like senses because he was bitten by a spider. Moving away from fantasy into a more scientific/technology led story, do we really know/understand how Iron Man creates his powerful suits, what is in Dr Jekyll's potion, how the traveller moves back and forth in time or how Frankenstein brings life to his monster? In most of these cases, the author just tells us 'that's how it is', and we can believe the author because the reasoning is either plausible or hard to argue with.

The 'handwavium' mentioned above is a good idea. Throw in the discovery of some new element, the creation of a new invention or have something radical happen to your protagonist (eg Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider) - perhaps your character receives a massive electric shock which should kill him, but somehow he survives. This curveball will mean that any scientific theories can manipulated to your heart's content without anyone being able to say anything to the contrary.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I hope that the term 'handwavium' doesn't come across as a slight to actual science. What the term means is distraction; distract the reader from something that is truly unexplainable by focusing the reader's attention on something. That is part of the reason I mentioned the consequences of momentum. If the writer draws attention to the consequences of attracting or repulsing large and small masses, then the reader has something to consider and is less likely to pay attention to the underlying technology. Writing about anything beyond what is exactly available here and now requires the reader to suspend some level of disbelief. If the writer can engage the reader in some interesting speculation on the consequences of a discovery, then the reader is more likely to overlook the implausibility of the discovery.

I think you have an interesting technology to write about and explore. Don't let the simple fact that it might be impossible stop you from writing a story about it. Have fun with it as a writer and the readers will have fun with it as well.