Expert: Mike Fulcher - 2/27/2008

Question
if I place a magnet against a pipe with a liquid flowing through it how will this affect the liquid? How will the liquid be affected after leaving the magnetic field of the magnet?

Answer
The magnet will have no effect on any liquid passing through the pipe.  Even if it was a liquified magnetic metal, the atoms would be loosely enough arranged to where there would be no observable macroscopic effects.  At an atomic level there would be some aligning of particles, which could potentially cause some small change in fluid viscosity.  My guess is that it would be tough to measure though.