Chapter 5
Heavy Metal » Making Small Change Smaller

hrink coins using copper coils, magnetic fields and enough energy to power a small city. I remember driving past a fraternity house when I was a teen-ager and wondering why I could tell instantly that someone was playing the drums live, not on a stereo. Live drums, I realized, have a sharper attack than any electronic reproduction, and the distinction is obvious to the drums in our ears. But shouldn't it be possible to hit a speaker cone with a magnetic field just as hard as you can hit a drum with a stick?

It turns out it is, but frat boys simply don't have the technology. Engineers, on the other hand, can potentially go way beyond annoying the neighbors should they choose to get involved in the sport of hitting things really hard with magnetic fields.