The reason that the flywheel is slowing down in rotation is due to frictional loss at the bearing. Also, the stored angular momentum is slowly dissipating. That momentum is not lost however, it is being transferred to the body that holds the bearing. In many cases this body is the earth itself. The angular energy can be converted into another form of energy such as heat but should always be totally accounted for.
Perhaps you can think of the permanent magnet as being composed of a very large number of individual super conducting atomic magnets. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Eric Walker <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, Nov 14, 2015 11:45 am Subject: Re: [Vo]:Re: How many atoms to make condensed matter? On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 9:06 AM, Bob Cook <[email protected]> wrote: This question has to do with coupling gravitational and magnetic fields. They do not seem to be coupled, although they may be way down deep in the dimensional scale. I was thinking of the magnetic field as the energy put into a heavy flywheel that is rotating very quickly. When the flywheel is engaged to an axle to make something happen, there's a gradual transfer of energy stored in the flywheel to the system attached to the axle. The same thing does not seem to hold in the case of the magnetic domains in a permanent magnet. The permanent magnet will hold up a heavy weight indefinitely (I assume), and there is no decrease in magnetism (angular momentum) in the process through a transfer of energy of some kind, in contrast to what is seen with the flywheel, even if one presumes the axle to which the flywheel is attached is frictionless. There's magic somewhere in there, but I'm having trouble putting my finger on it. Eric
