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Shoes with a special tread pattern and permanent magnets embedded in the soles for grabbing ferrous coins that you happen to step on. At the end of the day, or after a long walk, you may be a few cents richer.
Might not be too useful on pavement, where you can easily see coins, but might be profitable
in grassy high-traffic areas like public parks, where the coins would be hidden from view.
ADDENDA:
* In some countries such as Canada, most coins are ferromagnetic, in that they contain materials that are attracted to magnets.
* The magnets would be the same type as is found in fridge magnets or headphones, not hurl-you- through-the-air-when-an-airplane- flies-overhead magnets that you might see in a Disney mad-scientist movie.
Would this help ??
http://www.halfbake...ea/Magnetic_20Coins
[PainOCommonSense, Oct 04 2004]
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The shoes would mostly pick up old nails and such. Also there are few ferrous coins as they would rust. |
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In Canada at least, most coins are magnetic with the exception of the nickel and the penny. |
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BTW, stainless steel is ferrous and will not rust. |
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Where are all the penny loafer jokes? |
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Yeah, the good 3 series SS won't
rust, but it's also almost
completely non-magnetic. |
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It might also be difficult to walk over manhole covers. And imagine in icy weather your feet being drawn towards drain covers,lampposts and pavement lights. |
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//t might also be difficult to walk over manhole covers. And imagine in icy weather your feet being drawn towards drain covers,lampposts and pavement lights// |
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You would need cryogenic superconductor magnets to achieve that effect. It won't be a problem with regular permanent magnets. |
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Mommy, what's that man doing in the wishing well? |
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[AQ], what the heck are you talking
about? |
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You're going to need something
pretty magical to magnetically
attract nickel and copper, and not
attract "old nails and such." |
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And how exactly is this NOT going
to stick to manhole covers, storm
drains, etc.? |
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//You're going to need something pretty magical to magnetically attract nickel and copper// |
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Actually, nickel is magnetic, but nickels contain no nickel. And like I mentioned above, you will not catch nickels and pennies, but you'll get the dimes, quarters, dollars and two-dollar coins if you live in Canada. |
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//attract "old nails and such// |
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You will find a hell of a lot more coins than old nails in a city park for the simple reason that people walking in city parks have many coins and few nails in their pockets. |
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//And how exactly is this NOT going to stick to manhole covers, storm drains, etc// |
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Haven't you ever played with permanent magnets when you were a kid? They're not that powerful. They can pick up coins, but there's no way they can clamp your feet to a manhole cover. If you're thinking of those big magnets they use at junkyards, those are electromagnets, not permanent magnets. Electromagnets are wayyyyy stronger. |
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Most coins aren't magnetic. |
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[DesertFox] //Most coins aren't magnetic// |
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It depends where you live. In some places, most coins are. |
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//Most coins aren't magnetic// It would be interesting if they were. They'd stick together and would likely void your credit cards. Vending machines would be interesting as well. |
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I was assuming that people would "know what I meant" when I said that some coins are magnetic. I was using the word in the same way as you would say that iron is magnetic. |
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What I should have said is that, in some countries, most coins are //ferromagnetic//, in that they contain materials that are attracted by a magnetic field. |
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Well, antiquark, I live in the US. In the US, britain, mexico, japan.... and most of the other major country, most coins aren't magnetic, so these wouldn't be very useful unless you lived in a third world country. Plus you would have to practically step on them to get them to stick so you could just bend over and pick them up. |
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I really like the concept though! can we concentrate on finding notes and winning lottery tickets next. |
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Most coins in Canada will stick to a magnet. When we were kids my brother and I used to tie fishing line to the powerful magnets we could get from old car speakers and spend lunch hours from school eating a bag lunch at the nearest mall's wishing well while fishing for video game money. Hauled in thirty seven bucks one day and left all of the nickels and pennies behind.
<hangs head, shamed> |
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This would make walking pretty annoying, because, no matter how you arange the magnets, the two shoes would either attract or repell each other to some extent. So, with evey step you'd feel a force as the shoes move past each other. |
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po said: //can we concentrate on finding notes// |
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from what I've read on the internet, some US bills use magnetic ink and are attracted by strong magnets, so your suggestion might actually be possible. |
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Aegis said: //with evey step you'd feel a force as the shoes move past each other// |
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That's like saying that headphones will never work because peoples heads would be attracted to each other. |
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OK, well now I guess I get it, but I
don't know if it's worth the
trouble. |
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Brazil is another country that has magnetic coins, if memory serves. And Desertfox, if I were canadian I'd take great offense at your assertion that Canada is not a major country--it's at least as major as Mexico. Canada's got the second-largest oil supply in the world, you know. |
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I like the serendipity of the idea because you could have instant and unpredictable tap shoes. I do think that the manhole thing would about as awkward as stepping in gum. Not super glue sticky but annoying enough to break stride perhaps. Hey, how about coils in your soles like a metal detector to let you know if you were stepping near anything conductive including non ferrous coins? Like a Theremin in each foot. |
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