• Question: Could you get a magnet to pull out the iron in people?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      When our blood containing iron carries oxygen, it’s slightly repelled by a magnet so I don’t think any magnet could attract a human body – if that were the case it would probably happen at scrap yards with those huge magnets!

      water is magnetic though and MRI scans work by using magnets to produce detailed images of your body

    • Photo: Sakshi Sharda

      Sakshi Sharda answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      No, one cannot pull out iron from blood using a magnet. This is because iron in the blood is bound to hemoglobin. Though as Naomi mentioned, it is slightly repelled by the magnet, however since the blood is in constantly moving and because the temperature in the body is a little high even this slight repulsion is not seen. Maybe if iron existed in a free state, we could harvest that 🙂

Comments