The applications for magnets are too many to count. From doctors using the magnets found in magnetic resonance imaging equipment to scan bodies to homeowners buying powerful magnets for projects around the house. But just how powerful are magnets? One measure of strength is the Tesla, which is the equivalent of 10,000 gauss, according to How Stuff Works. While magnets typically used for MRI machines are measured between 0.5 Tesla to 3 Tesla, there are much stronger magnets housed in research institutions.
Here are three of the world's most powerful magnets:
U of M's monster MRI magnet
The University of Minnesota boasts having the most powerful magnet for MRI machines in the world, the Star Tribune reported. The magnet weighs 110 tons and was delivered to the university after being made by Agilent Technologies in England and making its journey across the Atlantic Ocean to its new home. The magnet will be utilized for the university's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and is expected to generate 10.5 Tesla, which should allow researchers to produce more detailed images of the brain.
"The kind of information that we need to generate an accurate wiring diagram of the human brain simply doesn't exist," said Kamil Ugurbil, director of the U of M's MRI research efforts. "This will enable us to be unique in terms of human brain studies."
Scientists at the university aim to develop the Human Connectome Project, which involves mapping the brain, with the magnet.
Energy Department's magnet for physics experiments
While it's not as big as U of M's magnet, a 15-ton magnet still posed a massive challenge when it was shipped 3,200 miles from Long Island to the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's in Batavia, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
James Siegrist, associate director of science for high-energy physics with the U.S. Department of Energy, called the Muon g-2 experiment – which the magnet will be used for – a significant part of the future of particle physics in the U.S.
The entire trip from Brookhaven National Laboratory, where the magnet was built, to the Chicago area is projected to have cost $3 million, which pales in comparison to the amount it would have taken to construct an entirely new electromagnet.
"It costs about 10 times less to move the magnet from Brookhaven to Illinois than it would to build a new one," said Lee Roberts of Boston University, spokesperson for the Muon g-2 experiment, in a press release. "So that's what we're going to do. It's an enormous effort from all sides, but it will be worth it."
At the new lab, scientists from 26 institutions around the world will study the magnet as part of the Muon g-2 project. The research will entail observing muons, which are subatomic particles that are only present for 2.2 millionths of a second.
MagLab's multi-shot magnet
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory's (MagLab) Pulsed Field Facility magnet located in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has the potential to reach up to a staggering 100 Tesla. The multi-shot magnet, named for its ability to be used repeatedly, is capable of generating the highest nondestructive field in the globe. The 100 Tesla magnet is important in the scientific community because scientists can study how high magnetic fields affect the quantum behavior of phase transitions in solids, according to the MagLab's site. Researchers may be able to improve knowledge about superconductivity and other scientific concepts through experiments that reveal the maximum strength of the magnet.
The magnetic device itself is powered by four distinct electrical circuits that are made with other giant magnets.