How To Build Permanent Magnet Alternator?

If i build a car with a giant magnet on the hood and another big magnet at the front of the car. A rod will?

• attach the 2 magnets. The driver can power down the top magnet towards the bottom magnet and then demagnatize them and return the magnet to the top position and again rapidly push the ...show more

• Answer:

  To answer whether or not you 'could' do this,yes- you could move a car forward by using magnets to shift a mass forward and backward cyclically, if you had a ratchet or some way to bias the car's motion in one direction. The newtonian reaction force of the moving mass would push the car in both directions, and a difference in resistance to that motion between forward and back could let it lurch forward, provided that the reaction force was greater than the car's static friction. I might not understand exactly how you propose to arrange the magnets and the moving parts, but it does not sound like it would be very efficient or effective.