I had an idea recently.

I tend to drop man small metal components and instead of looking for them i would prefer to just flick a switch on an electromagnet.

so how would you build an electromagnet capable of picking up small metal components from 5-10 feet

and what would such a magnetic field would do to nearby technology ie (cellphones laptops or their signals)

I had an idea recently.

I tend to drop man small metal components and instead of looking for them i would prefer to just flick a switch on an electromagnet.

so how would you build an electromagnet capable of picking up small metal components from 5-10 feet

and what would such a magnetic field would do to nearby technology ie (cellphones laptops or their signals)

 

Get a steel rod, wrap copper wire around it as much as you possibly can, then run a strong electrical current through it. That should be a pretty powerful magnet. Maybe not from 5-10 feet, but some electro-magnets can pick up things like fire trucks and small buildings.

Edited February 3, 201114 yr by steevey

This would not be practical. The magnetic field needed in order to pick something up from 5-10 feet away would be too powerful, most likely, in the area which you would be wanting to use this. Obviously you could not isolate these small objects and the smaller the object, the less force it will feel from the magnet (which also needs to counter its mass).

so how strong would the magnet have to be?

The electromagnet made using a rod won't help because the force is concentrated to a really small area, that is a point. If you have a magnet which has large surface area, you can probably pick the metal pieces up, the force same as in case of rod shape electromagnet.