Gravity From Extreme Magnetism

Most recent answer: 02/16/2013

Q:
i want to know one thing ,suppose i placed a magnet with high value around (10^6 tesla) at some heigth above ground level ,then will this magnetic force of attraction produced by magnet have any affect on gravity pull ?
- abhinav (age 19)
hyderabad,A.P,india
A:
That's an extremely strong magnetic field, far above anything we can obtain in the lab. There is some field energy associated with it, about 4*1011 J/cm3. Via E=mc2, we get a gravitational mass density of about 4*10-6kg/cm3 or 4*10-3 gm/cm3. For comparison, water has 1 gm/cm3 and ordinary air has about 1.3*10-3 gm/cm3. So it will show up a bit in gravity.

Mike W.

(published on 02/16/2013)