This video is not slowed down. The movement of a magnet falling down a copper tube creates an electrical current around the tube, which exerts a slowing force on the magnet.
That's fucking ace, never knew this. Why didn't anyone show this to me in school? My dad even taught me physics at school and he showed me all the cool shit except this.
We had to do an experiment like this in my physics lab with accelerations and stuff. For some reason we got a weird unexplained spike in the middle of our data that we couldn't explain so we tried telling our TA that we found a monopole. Ya, he didn't buy it.
Is there an electric spark when the magnet reaches the bottom of the tube?
No, just a brief flash of reflected light from the white surface below- blocked when the magnet's in the tube.
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/8fo7x/when_you_drop_a_magnet_through_a_copper_tube/
Thanks Arvana and Virga!
Well finally the sift is getting the nerd love it deserves from reddit!!!!one!!!1!!111!!!eleven!!!!!