this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Memes

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A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

When I was a kid I came up with this design during a long road trip. I spent the whole time thinking I was some kind of genius, because how didn't anyone else think of this before?

You can imagine my disappointment when I got home and created my prototype.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Equal AND opposite

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

This works in Kerbal Space Program

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago

Because you need to put it on the back and have it repel the truck forward instead of attract it forward obviously

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Needs more magnets and some springs.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

If you ever talk to someone confused by this, maybe ask them to lightly push the front magnet in the direction it's trying to go.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I tried that, nothing happened to the picture. why???

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Huh, try putting it next to the phone

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (3 children)

It would work if the repulsion/attraction only went in 1 direction. But since it goes both ways, they just cancel out.

Conversely, the fan version of this idea (fan blowing into a sail) does actually work. But it's nowhere near as efficient as simply turning the fan away from the sail to push you the normal way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What if u put the fan in the water?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

There's oxygen in water, so it could work

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Well because there the whole system now becomes the ship+air/water molecules rather than just the ship + you use energy to work the fan which imparts that energy to the air/water molecules. In the end the air/water molecules literally get pushed behind so the rest of the system can move forward.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You think it would work if one end is a magnet and the other ferrous metal? I'm pretty certain it wouldn't

Whatever happens there's no work done as the magnet and it's partner don't move relative to each other. There's force between them, but no movement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yeah, as long as no other energy is put into the system, nothing will happen. Since the two parts are statically attached to the same object, so no additional movement or energy means no effect on the overall object.

It is basically like putting two nails in a piece of wood and stretching a rubber band between them. Nothing will happen without additional steps

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You think it would work if one end is a magnet and the other ferrous metal?

No, because the force of attraction is still working in both directions just not as strongly as it would with two magnets.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Curse you physics

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Maybe it needs gas?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago

The magnet isn't strong enough.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago

The wire/metal holding it needs to be springy and bobbing back and forth to generate the momentum, duh.... Half-assed implementation I say.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 6 days ago

Young lady, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

need two separate vehicles and two magnets, one weaker then the other

so the weaker one will repell the other and it will kick forward moving the other forward and rinse and repeat at a sonic speed

thats gotta generate some kinda motion

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

This is basically how a ~~rail cannon~~ coil gun works, just with electromagnets that can reverse their polarity.

It's a powerful way to accelerate anything — I think it's most famously used in those types of metal roller coasters that start you at a flat-with-the-ground angle, and then just fuckin launch you up a ramp to 45° with electromagnets. The issue is that you need a fuckton of energy to do that.

What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

What we need for true perpetual energy is to just capture that guy Blanka from Street Fighter.

Surely that dude has to eat a lot in order to produce so much energy, no? Or is it just all stored somewhere in his body?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

That's not how a railgun works, that's how a coilgun works. Railguns create a loop of electric current that flows into one "wire" (the rail), through the projectile into the other wire, and back down to the starting point again, this configuration creates a force that pushes the projectile down the rails

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Ah, I appreciate the correction. I'm not an engineer but the youngest cousin of a clan of them, so I just got the highlights of the true evil genius shit. :p

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