The Black Rock (literally)

[Hooting Heck]

hundredand8,

Magnus Hanso, that's brilliant.

Try googling (other search engines are available) 'lodestone'.
As I recall, magnetite crystals are the most magnetic of all minerals (rocks), and magnetite has been used to trace the history of the Earth's magnetic field. Lodestone is a form of magnetite in which the crystals are arranged with their magnetic properties lined up, instead of scrambled. So you can use lodestone as a compass and to magnetise iron - they used to make compass needles by stroking them with a lodestone.

Remember Sayid saying that the compass didn't work on the island? Anyone remember if his compass needle was swinging about at random, or pointing steadily in the wrong direction?

If it was steady (but wrong), that would mean the island had a steady magnetic field - perhaps because all the individual rocks and layers of rocks were lined up. If the compass was varying, that would mean the local fields were pointing in all different directions and (at a distance) cancel each other out.

In the first case, the island could affect ship's compasses, "Luring sailors to their DOOM, I tells yer jim lad, arrrr". But if it did, compasses would still work ON the island - you'd just have to know they were pointing West (or wherever) instead of North.

Usual caveats apply.

[D-Roc]

HH - I think the compass was steady but i'd have to check that.

108 - The Magnus link was indeed very perceptive of you 108 ..thats something else to explore now

[hundredand8]

Thanks Pynch, HH, Rocco.

*feels smug*

On the compass thing. Suppose you are right, HH, and the island is like a single big lodestone. What if it was pointing up? So its like trying to use a compass on the north pole? Wouldn't that mean its "not working" as Sayid said?

Might explain how the island is pulling in all those wrecks.

Anyway, trouble is we are right into the sci-fi element of the show there, so anything goes.

[Hooting Heck]

Magnetic field lines point from a magnetic North Pole towards a magnetic South pole.
A compass needle points in the direction of the field line. So what we regard as the North pole indicated by a compass is actually a magnetic South Pole (the North Pole of a magnet points towards it).

At the Earth's north pole, the magnetic field lines point down towards the centre of the Earth. A compass needle points to the lowest part of the compass, and 'North' depends on how you hold the compass. If you tilt the compass down towards 12 o'clock, the needle points toward 12 o'clock. If you swivel the compass to tilt down towards 4 o'clock, the needle points toward 4 o'clock, etcetera. So if you waggle the compass round, the needle will spin in a circle.

At the south pole, the needle points up depending on how you hold the compass.

So if the island has a magnetic field that points up (or down), a compass needle will point anywhere, and could lead ships or planes round in circles. If the island has a particularly strong magnetic field in some other direction, it could be like putting a magnet next to a ship's compass, so it mistakes North for South East, or similar.

It's difficult to imagine a way that the island's magnetic field could lead ships/planes inward towards the island, rather than just deflecting their course a bit; but I'll give it some thought. It's a perspicacious idea.

[Pynch]

Originally Posted by Hooting Heck,September 07, 2006 01:18 am

It's a perspicacious idea.

[Snowy~Owl]

I really think hundredand8 is onto something here and its a fantastic idea. Also the Magnus Hanso link fits in brilliantly.

I now stongly believe that the magnetism of the island has some connection to the incident that happened on the island as recorded in the video and on the map on the door. I'm also inclined to believe its connected to the sickness. If the incident happened 20 years ago (for example) when Danielle landed with her team 16 years ago, could the area where the incident happened still have been contaminated having effects on anyone who passed too close by. Now we are approx 20 years after the incident perhaps the exposure to the incident is no longer a problem. Rather like the after effects of Chernobyl.

[lost-lover]

This is a really good idea, i've been wondering what the sickness could be for a while now, maybe the magnetism of the island got too powerful to control and something happened to the isalnd, or the hatches.

[hundredand8]

Originally Posted by Snowy~Owl,September 07, 2006 08:52 am

I really think hundredand8 is onto something here and its a fantastic idea. Also the Magnus Hanso link fits in brilliantly.

I now stongly believe that the magnetism of the island has some connection to the incident that happened on the island as recorded in the video and on the map on the door. I'm also inclined to believe its connected to the sickness. If the incident happened 20 years ago (for example) when Danielle landed with her team 16 years ago, could the area where the incident happened still have been contaminated having effects on anyone who passed too close by. Now we are approx 20 years after the incident perhaps the exposure to the incident is no longer a problem. Rather like the after effects of Chernobyl.

I've been thinking "radiation poisoning" for a while with respect to the sickness. So you take the words right out of my mouth there.

But I don't see the connection between that and magnetism, unless there is some sci-fi thing involved in which case, well, anything goes.