X-Men: F—ing Magnetos… How Do They Work?

Before I begin, some words of inspiration from a true master:

I really can’t do a good job–any job–of explaining magnetic force in terms of something else you’re more familiar with, because  I don’t understanding it in terms of anything else you’re more familiar with.

This is why science is so maddening for some and so great for others.

-Richard Feynman, Fun to Imagine (1983)

Raison d’être

While we Overthinkers have already spent many a goodly hour dissecting X-Men: First Class and the characters therein, I’d like to take the prominence this film holds in our current collective zeitgeist as an opportunity to voice an issue that’s irked me for years, now. Stated  simply, “how do we solve a problem like Magneto?”

To be clear, I take no umbrage with Magneto’s role as sometimes-hackneyed allegory for postwar Jewish experience, his membership in the brotherhood of superpowered Hebrews (in which I one day hope to hold a rank), nor his place in the pantheon of villains who seem  superfluously haunted by the deaths of their mothers. All of these are, to some degree, excusable literary devices of the sort inevitably used throughout the perpetual re-imagining of such a long-lived character. No, my issues with Herr Lehnsherr, like most of my professional worries (and–now that I think about it–like most of the troubles with my mom) stem from basic physics.  Which is to say, the self-proclaimed “Master of Magnetism:”

…has, at best, only a rudimentary control over this awesome fundamental force.

Okay, in this example he’s also a bit of a douche, I guess.

Now, as the quote that opens this post so eloquently states, the physics of magnetism get quite a bit sticky.  It’s not that the math is hard per se (though it can be a bit daunting), nor are the results counter intuitive in the way that many quantum or cosmological phenomena tend to be.  The problem with magnetism is that so many of its aspects are immediately well-known to the common observer, and yet the intrinsic physical phenomena from which they’re borne are best explained in a fundamentally counter-intuitive manner.

This has, of course, lead to notorious confusion in the literature. In fact even I, with my obviously formidable scientific prowess, would never be so boastful as to liken my pedagogical skills to those of Professor Feynman. Hence, this post won’t serve as a primer on magnetic theory, just a critique of the way Magneto (under)utilizes it.  Also of note: while OTI has previously featured related analysis that provided an elegant Physical Chemical model for Magneto’s powers, that work attempted to justify the apparent limitations of his abilities. I, on the other hand, recognize that the ability to control magnetism–in all of its forms and contexts–should imbue Magneto with a startling array of powers. I’m just attempting to help him realize his full potential.

Magnetism: Electricity’s Wacky Next-Door Neighbor

Modern physics states that the universe is governed by a set of five basic forces: gravity, the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism and heart. You’ll note right away that magnetism doesn’t stand on its own right, instead being inextricably tied to the electric force. The discovery that these two seemingly disparate forces are, in reality, just different facets of a single unifying phenomenon was one of the great triumphs of 19th century physics, and in many ways established the foundations of the 20th and 21st century’s electrically-powered society.  Let’s take a look at some salient features of magnetic fields and forces:

I. Changes in electric fields generate accompanying magnetic fields

This is an over-simplified statement of Ampere’s Law.  Most of us are familiar with this principle from an experiment many did in elementary school: generating a magnetic field using a flowing electric current.  Just wrap a copper wire around a pencil a few times, connect its ends to the poles of a battery, and watch in awe as you’ve created an electromagnet! (Bonus: try and do this near the security checkpoint at an international airport. There’s nothing TSA finds funnier than exposed electronic components.)  The law is named for its discoverer, André-Marie Ampère, who used these devices to simultaneously solve 18th century France’s Excess-Pencil and Scattered-Paperclip Crises.  And all while having a girl’s name.  Good hustle.

II. Changes in magnetic fields generate accompanying electric fields

My personal favorite of the classical electrodynamic laws, and it should be yours too if you’re into things like “making electricity from non-electricity.”  This is a grossly over-simplified statement of Faraday’s Law of Induction, the principle underlying the function of nearly every classical electric device: from electric turbines to those adorable hand-crank thingies they used to put on the front of cars.  More on those later.

Note that this law brings a kind of symmetry (though not true symmetry in the mathematical sense) to Ampere’s law: by varying the field due to either electricity or magnetism, you simultaneously generate a field of the other component.  In fact, through clever tinkering, one can simultaneously exploit both of these principles as a means of wirelessly transferring power between two circuits.  Imagine an electromagnet of the sort described above, with its coil placed in close proximity to separate coil that’s disconnected from any power source.  A variable current delivered to the electromagnetic coil will (by Ampere’s law) induce a variable magnetic field.  The second coil experiences this changing magnetic field and (due to Faraday’s law)  an electric field that ultimately drives a second electric current.   Devices of this sort should be well known to you: they’re called transformers.

III. Magnetic Field lines are curved (or infinite)

…A consequence of Gauss’ Law of Magnetism, (not to be confused any of the bajillion other things named for C. F. Gauss.  That guy was a goddamn badass…) which states that the sum of all magnetic field lines entering a closed surface is always equal to the sum of those lines leaving that surface.  This is in stark contrast to electric field lines, which all point away from positive charges and toward negative charges, or to gravitational field lines, which point in the direction of massive objects (at least, in simple cases). Both of these other examples can exert straight lines of force, as well, whereas real magnetic fields have curves. Again, many of you might have already seen an illustration of this principle in high school science classes:

…whereupon you probably thought, “Wow, my previous experiences of iron filings sure made that demonstration so culturally relevant!”

IV. Putting magnetic and electric fields together

The three laws mentioned above, Ampere’s Law, Faraday’s Law of Induction and Gauss’ Law for Magnetism–taken together with another of Gauss’ Laws (dude was a bad. ass.)–constitute a classic set of differential equations that underlies the entire fields of classical electrodynamics and optics.  They’re termed Maxwell’s laws, after the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. This is widely attributed to an arcane pre-E.U. labor regulation requiring that peaceful collaborations between British (Faraday), French (Ampere) and Prussian (Gauss) citizens be overseen by Scotsmen.  It’s largely believed that this law is to blame for Europe’s eventual focus on non-peaceful collaborations.

No, these equations bear Maxwell’s name because he was the one who initially proved that they’re sufficient in describing the electric/magnetic fields present in essentially any scenario.  Given some input data about a system (the distribution of charges, electric current, &ct) one could, in theory, use these equations to derive a general equation that describes the electric and magnetic fields in the system at any point in space and time. In most cases, this calculation is what we in the science biz call “a colossal brainfuck very challenging,” but a simple, peculiar solution pops up if one considers a system containing no charges or currents. Of course, a trivial solution states that the electric and magnetic fields are each zero. But, Maxwell proved that the Laws could also be satisfied by a traveling wave equation, in which an electric field oscillated parallel to one axis, a magnetic field oscillated along a perpendicular axis, and the whole system moved forward along a third, mutually perpendicular axis.  Check out this animation, which I stole from some website somewhere totally made myself. The blue bars indicate the magnetic field lines; red are the electric field lines:

This phenomenon, a traveling pair of coupled, oscillating  magnetic and electric fields is termed electromagnetic radiation, or more commonly, light. Maxwell proved that the speed at which these fields propagate in a vacuum is, in fact, c, the speed of light in a vacuum. Furthermore, he could prove that this speed is the same irrespective of the observer’s reference frame.  This last result places c as the absolute speed limit in our universe, and lays the groundwork for Einsteinian relativity.

V. Pretty much everything you care about is magnetic

One last little bit before we return to the comfortable world of Comic Book-Themed Summer Blockbusters. In the world of quantum physics, all particles are defined by a series of fundamental characteristics, many of which defy simple explanation. One of these is the quantum spin, so termed less because scientists actually believe that these tiny particles are spinning about their axes, and more because the math describing them is similar to that describing spinning objects. Depending on its value, a particle’s quantum spin number can imbue the particle with a magnetic dipole moment–i.e., can generate a tiny little magnetic field. This might seem like a bit of a physical curio, were it not for that fact that, many atomic nuclei (a prominent example being hydrogen–the most abundant element in the universe, and ~11% the mass of any given water molecule) and electrons each fall into this category.  Which is to say, nearly all of the particles from which you (and all of your surroundings) are made are, in fact, a tiny little magnets. This phenomenon forms the basis for both NMR spectroscopy, and medical MRI, if not a sizable portion of ill-informed beat poetry.

So, now that your knowledge of basic electrodynamics far exceeds that of the average medical student, what can we infer about Magneto’s powers?  Or rather, of his lack thereof?

Let’s start with two observations into Magneto’s behavior, which shall serve to illustrate the physical bases of his powers.  Note that I’m focusing on the incarnation of Magneto that appears in the X-Men film franchise, and less on the myriad variants that have appeared in comic books throughout the years.  This is in part because I assume the former is known to a larger audience, and in part because I’m too lazy to see if the comic literature corroborates my theory, after a careful reading of the comic literature, I’ve concluded that the powers granted him are absurd. (*Shifty eyes*)

1) Magneto can “sense” the presence of magnetic fields, and, as illustrated in the famous prison-escape sequence in X-2, those elements which “respond” to them.  This appears to be an autonomic response: he’s not actively analyzing his surroundings in any sort of conscious way, but instead passively absorbs information through his magnetic “sense” in the way that, say, the thermal-sensing nerves of our skin respond to temperature.

2) Magneto frequently uses his powers to move objects along linear and/or irregular paths.  Or at least, they’re not moving along the curved field lines generated in a simple, static magnetic field (As per Gauss’ Law for Magnetism, see above).  Examples of this phenomenon are ample, and it’s nicely illustrated by each of his character climaxes (Heheheh–Ed.) in X-Men: First Class. In the first of these, Magneto Magneto slowly moves a Nazi coin along a linear path, passing it through Kevin Bacon’s Kevin Bacon’s brain. While such linear motion could be possible either by (a) running the projectile along a topologically fixed track (as in mag-lev trains), or (b) by generating a field over a tremendous distance, such that its north and south poles are essentially “at infinity,” neither really seems within his grasp here.  In the second climax (hurhur), his face-off with the assembled American/Russian flotillas, Magneto stops a barrage of missiles and gunfire mid-arc, and thereafter alters the projectiles’ trajectories numerous times. From each of these events, we can infer that Magneto is fully capable not just of creating simple, static magnetic fields, but also complicated fields that vary with time.

Now, given these, I’d like to propose…

Some Powers That Should Fall Within a “Master of Magnetism’s” Purview

Night Vision. Or rather, the ability to “see” pretty much anything at all, even without eyes. As stated on the previous page, a significant fraction of the universe’s matter generates tiny magnetic fields.  Magneto should be able to sense these fields directly, or to sense their response to his application of a larger external field.  Now, honing this trait to the point where he could make out facial expressions in the dark might take a great degree of work, but in the bare minimum he should be able to know where the walls in of a darkened room are.  This would also relate to his…

Atomic “Vision.” Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy–a technique that exploits the fact that atoms’ magnetic dipoles change based upon their local chemical environment–has become the workhorse application for the determination of chemical compounds‘ structures. Again, turning Erik into a functioning multidimensional NMR apparatus is probably an unreasonable feat to ask, but it should be relatively easy for him to pick out gross details of a compound’s structure (i.e. “This ‘mutation cure’ you’ve developed is rich in aromatic-adjacent alkyne groups, Beast” or, “Look out, Charles! Your wine’s been doped with Indium!”).  Bare minimum: it should be pretty hard to poison his food.

[Author’s side note:magnetic fields can be used in the determination of very complex molecular structures, like those of proteins. This depends on the transfer of magnetization between physically colocalized, though nonbonded, groups–a phenomenon termed the Nuclear Overhauser Effect. I bring this up because “Nuclear Overhauser Effect” is, as far as I can tell, the only scientific term used in this post that doubles as a bitchin’ superhero and/or band name, but which hasn’t been used as such already.]

World’s Greatest Doctor.  Give him a radio gun, and the dude’s a walking MRI.  AND he’s already learned that human life has no intrinsic value.  That’s something you normally pick up during your residency.

…So, these traits, which all stem from Magneto’s ability to sense magnetic fields, are all well and good.  But what can a man with the ability to make his own time-varying magnetic fields do?

Light Manipulation. Maxwell’s laws illustrate that light can be thought of as an oscillating magnetic field (which, owing to Faraday’s Law, brings an oscillating electric field along for the ride).  Magneto should be able to do all sorts of funky stuff with light, either by creating new light, or by tinkering with the light around him.  This would include the entry level..

Light Bursts.  De novo creation of light allows him to do everything from Dazzler-style shenanigans to Superman-style eye-laser beams.

Invisibility. Just move any light that’s headed his way around his body, like a springtime mountain river’s water flows around a discarded oil drum.

…or more advanced techniques, like…

Shape-shifting. At least, apparent shape-shifting. Most people only know what you look like based on the light that bounces off you.  SO, Magneto could manipulate that scattered light into portraying something else.  I’d propose this mostly for tactical purposes; given my druthers, I’d be quite happy looking like Michael Fassbender.  Or Ian McKellan.  Or Jordan Stokes.

Holography. If you can manipulate your scattered light into a new image, you could do the same with light originating from/headed towards anywhere else.

[Telekinesis of non-metallic objects? Eh, probably not.  While most everything we commonly think about is a tiny magnet, when placed in an external magnetic field these magnets tend to align themselves in a perfect 50:50 distribution parallel to- and antiparallel (opposed) to- it.  So, if Magneto tried levitate you owing only to your intrinsic magnetism, roughly half of the molecules in your body would align in a direction supporting his lifting field, while half would oppose it.  In NMR we need to apply bursts of radio-frequency light to our samples in order to shift the population balance, and even then, only about 1 in 1,000,000 molecules realigns its orientation…]

Electricity Manipulation. Another fun property of magnetic fields is that they bend the paths of moving charged particles, a phenomenon known as the Lorentz Force. Now, to be fair Magneto does exploit this quite a bit to disrupt electrical equipment. But it also means that electricity is a completely useless weapon against him: any bolt of lightning thrown his way is effectively putty in his hands, and could be deflected or re-directed as he wills.  Electro, you’re useless, here. Storm, lay off the lightning.  Actually, lay off any kind of cloud formation that accumulates charge.  Now that I think of it, it’s probably best if you just sit this one out altogether. Take some time to reevaluate your priorities.

Electricity Manipulation II: Magnetic Boogaloo. You know, the funny thing about charged particles isn’t just that their paths are bent in magnetic fields.  The “bending” of their paths equates to an acceleration–the velocity vector is changing over time, so even if the speed stays unchanged (which it doesn’t have to), the direction is changing.  Charged particles have this funny way of emitting light when they’re accelerated. For electrons, this light typically falls in the spectrum of x-rays.  SO, if  Magneto gains access to some free electrons (either from a failed attempt at hitting him with a lightning bolt… I’m looking your way, Storm… or just from, like, a wall-socket somewhere), it should be trivial for him to turn himself into a Human er…. Mutant Synchotron. Grab some electrons, spin them in a toroidal (read: “doughnut-shaped”) magnetic field, and you’ve got yourself a nearly infinite supply of flesh-searing, DNA-lesion-inducing, x-rays, Mister.  Should be enough to blind anyone in the near vicinity, give cancer to most, boil Colossus alive inside his armor (if that skin’s actually made of steel), and/or use him as a source of Bremsstrahlung radiation. [N.B.: X-rays are themselves electromagnetic waves, so Magneto should be able to make them de novo.  Given an electron source, the synchotron method requires a far lower energy input on his part.  It’s more sustainable–and that’s a buzzword, these days.]

Electricity Manipulation III: This time, it’s personal. I noted above that Faraday’s law is my favorite of the Maxwell equations*.  Hence, it should probably come as no surprise that Magneto’s failure to exploit this law is the most personally disappointing for me.  The Master of Magnetism should, by creating magnetic fields that change over time, also be the Master of Electricity.  Let’s illustrate this with a simple example (Figure 1., below).  Let’s say Magneto’s faced with an humanoid (mutant) enemy so heinous that, as defined by virtually any moral code, it’s to everyone’s collective benefit that this enemy be extinguished.  I’ve come to call this the “Jubilee Problem” (Fig. 1a). Considering that the average human body has an electrical resistance of (depending on the physical integrity of its skin, and whether it’s wet or dry) ~500–100,000 Ω, we can approximate Jubilee as a simple grounded resistor of this value (Fig. 1b).  Now, for humans the average lethal electrical shock has a current, I, of 0.07–0.1 A; by Ohm’s Law we calculate that it would require  an electrical potential difference (voltage) of ~35–20,000 V to push this current through Jubilee.  (Note: as the current is applied, her skin will probably begin to break down, lowering her resistance and making the whole process easier.)  Proper application of Faraday’s Law (Fig. 1c), via the generation of a variable magnetic field (dΦ/dt) with a rate of change of 35–20,000 Wb/s does the trick.

I want to clarify two points: (1) I oppose capital punishment in all of its forms, save for those expressly stated in the findings of The People vs. Scrappy-Doo (1992), for which my lawyer assures me that Jubilee qualifies.  And, (2) the direction of the current, relative to the applied magnetic field, is determined by Lenz’s law.

*-You know you’re a nerd if you’ve ever said, “…is my favorite of the Maxwell equations.”

Magneto: Where the only limitation… is Yourself!

So, taking into account all that we now know, how can we justify Magneto’s apparently limited scope? It would be easy to explain it non-diegetically, to infer that a character like Magneto is intrinsically limited by the scientific fluency of his writers. However, this kind of thinking relegates our discussion to the realm of literary criticism, and we Overthinkers can hardly tolerate that.  No, for the sake of keeping it zesty, let’s  keep our arguments firmly diegetic, and assume instead that any limitation on Magneto’s powers be self-consistent with the universe in which he lives.

One explanation that has already been put forth on this site simply curtails Magneto’s abilities. If he is not (as he frequently boasts) the Master of Magnetism, but merely, say, A Dude With His G.E.D. in Magnetism, then that explains it.  And yet, I find this kind of argument disappointing. After all, Magneto is the most feared mutant on Earth, the most reviled adversary of the Uncanny X-Men. These characters have encapsulated themes of youth in revolt–against antiquated, entrenched social mores, against the allegorical pubescent confusion surrounding their own forms and abilities–in a way that no comic book characters had done before, and which few have achieved since. To hamstring their most powerful opponent, the man at the center of their most heartbreaking failure, in this manner, hardly seems to do any of the characters justice.

It’s possible, of course, that Magneto himself doesn’t fully understand the extent of his capabilities.  Of note, he spent a large portion of his youth in a Nazi concentration camp, and likely never received any formal scientific education.  This seems unlikely to me for three reasons.  First, in some regards all mutants’ abilities seem autonomic, i.e. without need for a formal academic understanding. Without training they may manifest in uncontrollable ways, but then so does (for example) our sense of smell. With proper training, one can learn to detect subtle components in a wine’s bouquet, but no one needs to understand the biochemistry of smell just to know that they’re able to detect odor at all.  Hence, while it might not be immediately apparent to him why he’s able to “feel” the magnetic moments of hydrogen atoms, Magneto’d probably be able to do it nonetheless.  Second, I think the cultural connections to his ancestral people probably emphasized self-education in the sciences, even outside the constraints of formal schooling. Hence, he probably picked the stuff up on his own after the war. Third, and most important, there’s this.  It seems unlikely that he’d name himself for a device that uses magnets to generate electricity, without knowing that he’s able to generate electricity.

So why, then, does Erik Lehnsherr find himself limited to the telekinesis of metal objects, the sabotage of electronic devices, and the occasional force-field?  To me, the answer is simple:

Brand management.

Magneto understands that his greatest power–even beyond the awesome might of Maxwell’s Laws–is the power he holds in the public consciousness.  Consider the way that magnets and electricity are commonly thought of in society, and the way that his power subverts this notion. As small children, we’re taught that the electric outlets in our house are wild, horrifyingly dangerous devices that should be respected from a comfortable distance.  We’re rapt in terror by the unbridled power of lightning.  And all the while,  we learn that magnets can hold our crayon drawings to the refrigerator door (N.B.: not if you slam the magnet on the floor a few times.  Then it loses its magnetism.).  Even later, we learn to see magnetism as an afterthought of electricity: we can make an electromagnet from a battery and a wire, assuming we’re not building more useful circuits with them.

Magneto is a man who has taken the familiar, the docile, the seemingly meek, and has transformed it into a weapon to be respected and feared.   Without stretching the analogy too greatly, one can again see a hint of allegory for the Jewish people: they’re a group also once thought to be docile, seemingly meek, and now (for better or for worse) seen as a brawny, militaristic power that’s–if nothing else–feared.

For Magneto, this fear is most effective when his actions play directly to the audience’s preconceived (somewhat ill-informed) notions.  No super villain wants to find himself mid-diatribe, having to explain things.  Consider the following:

***

[Ext. the Franklin Mint, day. MAGNETO hovers triumphantly over a group of subdued X-MEN he’s hogtied with steel girders]

MAGNETO: At LAST you puny X-men shall yield to the magnificent might of Magneto: Master of Magnetism! Watch in horror as I raze your precious Humans’ beloved Franklin Mint to its very foundations! From this day forth, NOTHING will ever be guaranteed to increase in value AGAIN!

[MAGNETO lifts his arms towards the Mint’s doors, his concentration fixed, unwavering.  His eyes disappear amidst a pale-blue crackle as freakish tendrils of electricity begin to emanate from his fingertips.  With thunderous CRAKOWS, lightning bolts begin to stream freely toward the Mint’s metal frame.]

CYCLOPS: Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Hold the phone! Since when can you shoot lightning bolts?

JEAN GREY: Yeah, you’re not the “Master of Electricity,” Magneto! Stick to the script!

MAGNETO: Well, actually, the two properties are intrinsically linked, owing to the physical laws of…

BEAST: Who chatters on about physics while holding up the Franklin Mint? That’s just idle justification if I’ve ever heard it.

MAGNETO: Wha? Hank, you of all people… I figured you’d know about the Faraday Effect…

ICEMAN: Faraday Effect?  He’s in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants now?

MAGNETO: No, it’s…

WOLVERINE:   I think Faraday Effect’s one of the Morlocks. Also, I’m in the X-men now, for some reason.  Hey guys.

OTHER X-MEN: Hey.

MAGNETO: Look, the Faraday Effect is a fundamental law of the universe! It’s not a frackin’ supervillian!

STAN “THE MAN” LEE: Can’t it be both? I mean, Ditko and I’ve done worse…

MAGNETO: (sputters to himself inaudibly)

[THE WATCHER appears, to AUDIBLE GROANS]

THE WATCHER: Perhaps my mystical, all-seeing abilities can shed some light on the matter?

EVERYONE: NOOO!

***

Remember: the goal here is fear, not confusion. And that fear can only remain effective as long as the intended audience understands what they’re supposed to be afraid of.  The sad truth is: as long as the public fails to really understand magnetism, Magneto will be forced to play to their ignorance. And in that regard, I guess, he’ll never truly be free.