Mjölnir's Secret: Microwave Oven Magnets - Who Knew?
Videos for Engineers

The secret of Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, has finally been revealed. As it turns out, being found 'worthy' of lifting Mjölnir requires having the right thumbprint. Well, at least inventor / maker Allen Pan's version of the hammer does. The July/August issue of Popular Science ran an article on Pan's cleverly converted toy Mjölnir wherein he buried four lead-acid batteries to power a scrounged microwave oven transformer for duty as an electromagnet. An Arduino Uno-driven sensor detects Pan's unique thumbprint and disables the electromagnet to allow him alone to lift the hammer from its perch atop a metal base - such as a manhole cover or steel construction plate.

The video below shows the reactions of people on the street who are utterly unable to budge the hammer while Allen walks up to it and effortlessly lifts his Mjölnir. As always, I am amazed by yet another example of a world full of creative, inventive people like Allen Pan.

Agent Smith Sells GE Medical

Videos for Engineers - RF Cafe Website This archive links to the many video and audio files that have been featured on RF Cafe.

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Posted October 18, 2016

Copper Mountain Technologies Vector Network Analyzers - RF Cafe

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...