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In Railgun S episode 8 at 8:04, Misaka uses magnetism to escape from one of
Frenda's explosives, attracting herself to a steel cage. The impact upon
hitting the cage is strong enough to leave a dent in the steel (I'm pretty
sure a real person would have died, but that's beside the point). She herself
hints that it's quite painful, saying:

> Using max magnetism to retreat... I hate to use something that does so much
> damage...

Presumably, she's referring to damage done to herself since she doesn't seem
to have much problem with the collateral damage her railgun and other attacks
often do (Ex. season 1 ep1 at 20:30 and season 2 ep1 at 19:51).

Is it scientifically possible for her to use electromagnetism to repel herself
from the steel before impact to decelerate? The more general question here
being- is it possible for an electromagnet to repel a magnetic metal?
(Assuming that's her only magnetic ability. I'm not sure that assumption is
correct)

I'm not sure if it helps to answer, but there are also many times that Misaka
uses magnetism to seemingly freely control objects in the air in any direction
without there being any reciprocal force applied to herself. For example:

  * In the same clip at 7:29, she levitates an horizontally moves some quite heavy-looking steel plating. She herself stands in place.

  * In Railgun S episode at 1:17, she can make a gekota finger puppet with a (presumably magnetic-but-non-permanent-magnet) hairclip inside it stand up in her hand and do a twirl. Granted- that's a lightweight object, but it doesn't seem likely that that's possible by simple magnetic attraction alone.

Note: This question is written as I would have written it _before_ I started
doing additional research enough to instant-self-answer (as I have).


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a-certain-scientific-railgun
Can't Misaka use magnetism to decelerate before impact after accelerating toward a magnetic metal to soften the impact?


This is a self-answer. I spent some time thinking, did some googling, and then
some more thinking.

### If her only magnetic ability was to attract, then no, she couldn't

An electromagnet (or any kind of magnet- for that matter) can only attract and
cannot repel a magnetic metal.

I'm not sure how I didn't realize this when I first thought of the question,
since I played with magnets quite a bit when I was a kid. Somehow that
experiential intuition failed me. In my defense, I don't have a _lot_ of
science/physics background, and I thought that electromagnets could possibly
be a special case in interactions with magnetic metals. They aren't.

### Attraction between objects and herself isn't her only magnetic ability

At the time that I first wondered-up what is now the above question post, I
was very fixated on the logic of the magnetic attraction ability shown in the
clip that is the subject of the question. I had somehow "forgotten" about
this.

As stated in the question post (referencing the steel plating in Railgun S ep8
at 7:29), Misaka can also move objects around magnetically without there being
any "equal and opposite force" exerted upon herself. There's also the stairs
at 10:32, the _entire floor_ at 13:17, and an army of dolls in ep10 at 5:30.

Additionally, Misaka seems to be able to choose which steel object she
attracts herself to (or to herself) in her vicinity. That facility she was in
had a lot of steel in it (she hints toward that herself during the same battle
with Frenda at 10:23: " _If you wanted to make me fall, you'd have to rebuild
this entire facility and this time, leave out the steel!_ "), presumably
enough that the specific steel cage she used to escape to wasn't the only
steel object nearby. In that same clip, there were some pipes to her left, and
she had just shielded herself opposite to the steel she escaped to with some
steel plating, which looked to be much closer to herself than the steel cage.
If she could only create "mutual" attraction between objects and herself, she
probably would have only been able to draw herself to the ground (the closest
thing to herself) in that scenario.

When she moves the Gekota finger puppet with the hairclip inside it to stand
up in her hand and twirl around, that probably wouldn't be possible if her
only magnetic ability were to attract objects to herself if the hairclip
doesn't have a permanent magnetic field. But if it actually had a permanent
magnetic field, _maybe_ that would be possible?

You can read more about her electromagnetic abilities [on the Toaru
wiki](https://toarumajutsunoindex.fandom.com/wiki/Misaka_Mikoto/Abilities#Electromagnetism).

There's also the possibility of usage of [magnetic (eddy current)
braking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_brake).

### So maybe, [yes, but also no](https://i.kym-
cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/596/dsmGaKWMeHXe9QuJtq_ys30PNfTGnMsRuHuo_MUzGCg.jpg).

To my memory, she is never shown using such a "magnetic repel" ability (which-
as already mentioned- would be scientifically bunk) in the anime's three
seasons. I don't know about the manga or the light novels.

She _is_ shown using her ability to create magnetic attraction between herself
and other magnetic metals plenty of times in the anime: season 1 ep8 at 16:58,
season 2 ep1 at 17:08, ep9 at 5:15, and ep12 at 12:20- just to name a few, and
particularly with this cage escape clip and ep9 at 5:15, it's apparant that
she can choose what she attracts herself to- even if other magnetic metal
objects are closer by.

So she probably could have softened the impact to the cage by attracting
herself to something opposite to her direction of movement before impact.

But that would kind of defeat the story, making it less satisfying.

In that scene, the damage done to herself serves a storytelling purpose: she's
in a pinch against Frenda, and eventually the rest of the members of
[ITEM](https://toarumajutsunoindex.fandom.com/wiki/ITEM) by herself, and
_having very hard time handling it_. She was trying to solve everything
independently. That's in stark contrast to the situation in ep23-34 after her
character growth in ep21.

### It's science _fiction_

Her ability to create magnetic attraction between objects and herself
certainly seems more believable to me than the other magnetic abilities she
has (a force acting between herself and another object rather than a force
acting between an object and seemingly nothing), but I guess that at that
point it's a bit pointless to question it too deeply, and one should just
accept that it's science _fiction_ created for entertainment value, and to
just enjoy the entertainment value. It's the mixture of believable-enough
abilities _and limitations_ (like the self-damage of hitting a steel cage)
that makes the story interesting and enjoyable. It's probably better to just
let the story work its magic (no pun intended) to bring about immersion and
some suspension of disbelief.


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