Jon,
What a cool idea! Using a big electromagnet would certainly do the
trick. Unfortunately, you'll have to have a pretty big power supply
to create a big enough electromagnet. A car battery would be drained
in a matter of minutes. A more enery conserving method would be to
simply chain the car to the parking meter (assuming that future
parking meters would have loops to put the chain through!) Another
problem may be that a magnet that strong would draw all kinds of
objects to it from people passing near the car. Not only would the car
be stuck to the meter, but you would end up with a collection of
people and their magnetic belongings stuck to your car when you
returned!
Ron Hipschman
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Ron Hipschman, Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 563-7337 (415) 739-5052 (pager)
ronh@exploratorium.edu http://www.exploratorium.edu
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