flick magnet the podcast: 7+ Minutes of Motion: Magnetic Di

In this bench session I spun up a stacked magnet disc setup using only a quick wrist flick and timed how long the magnet disc spin would last. The bottom 10-inch disc with edge magnets seemed to help it keep going past 7 minutes with almost no friction. No electromagnets or sensors were needed in the final run – just pure mechanical and magnetic interaction.

Key takeaways

• A single wrist flick produced over 7 minutes of continuous magnet disc spin.
• The 10-inch bottom disc with round magnets on the edge appears to add momentum and reduce slowdown.
• Magnetic levitation keeps friction extremely low allowing long spin times.
• Adding a fan created a windmill effect that extended runtime to 30 minutes in earlier tests.
• Stacked discs (8-inch on top, dual 10-inch below) create interesting magnetic interactions around the 4-5 minute mark.
• This setup shows how simple permanent magnet arrangements can produce surprisingly long motion without power.

I fired up the camera and gave this magnet disc spin setup a quick flick. What happened next surprised me – over 7 minutes of smooth rotation from one wrist motion. No coils, no batteries, just magnets and careful levitation.

Bench notes: Started with a basic spin and timer. Subtracted 20 seconds for reaction time. The levitating disc has an 8" top plate over dual 10" lower discs. Round neodymium magnets line the outer edge of the bottom disc. Infrared and electromagnet attempts were tried earlier but the pure passive run worked best.

The real story is how the bottom disc seems to keep the motion alive longer than expected. Around the 4-minute mark you can see the magnets start interacting more but it doesn't kill the spin. By 6 minutes it's still turning nicely and hits 7 minutes 40 seconds in the best run.

Support the channel if you're into these kinds of hands-on experiments. Every membership helps me buy more magnets and discs to push these tests further.

From the spoken experiment

The following notes stay close to what was said in the video about flick magnet the podcast:

> all right so we're going to take a look at the mechanics of what makes this thing spin for so long so I'm gonna spin it we're going to look at the time we're going to subtract that time I'm thinking 20. all right so we're going to take 20 seconds off been trying all different kinds of things with this uh it's kind of working kind of it's nothing like what I want though so I'm going to try um see that little dot right there it's an electromagnet I'm going to try and get some motion going using a few electromagnets and some infrared transmitters and receivers foreign I think what adds to the motion here is this this 10 inch disc that I put on the bottom with these little round ones on the very edge and I think it's actually helping this thing move which is pretty exciting and it's not a huge deal because it stops but it it's pretty neat what happens two minutes in 10 seconds and then I had…

Builder checklist

• Confirm trigger/sensor timing before chasing higher voltage
• Watch heat on coils and transistors during longer runs
• Record voltage and behavior at each change (one variable at a time)

Related on this site

• Pulse motor resources & glossary
• Start here if you're new
• Back EMF guide
• How to build a pulse motor

Related on this site

• Pulse Motor Rotor Design: Magnets, Materials and Balance — Directly relates to the stacked disc and edge magnet arrangement used in the magnet disc spin test.
• Magnetic Levitation on a Pole – Experiment 1 — Shows the same levitation technique that allows the 7-minute spin with almost zero friction.
• Understanding Magnetic Friction in Pulse Motors — Explains the friction (or lack of it) that makes the long spinning magnet disc possible.

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*Generated from video transcript (hash `20a2b1b8291b…`).*