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Police officer's gun sucked away by powerful magnets in lab raid (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 1 month ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[–] MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The biggest problem is that the magnets will "quench", which is what happens when a superconducting electromagnet suddenly stops being superconducting.

There's a lot of energy stored in that magnet, and when it quenches the energy all turns to heat in a very short time. Any remaining helium will flash boil, turning into an explosive expansion of gas, and the thermal shock will seriously damage the machine

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 month ago

Which, in older machines, might happily pump a fuckton of gaseous helium into the room, potentially creating overpressure and squeezing the door shut while people suffocate.