F---ing magnets! How do they work?

[rom65536]

So - programmable magnets are evidently a thing now. A company called "Polymagnet" has invented a system whereby they can 3-d print a permanent rare earth magnet with just about any shape of magnetic field.

company website:
http://www.polymagnet.com/

video from "Smarter Every Day" about the things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IANBoybVApQ

Right now, applications are relegated to macroscale physical things (a really interesting door latch is demoed in the video). But controlling the magnetic properties of small regions of material would be pretty useful for quantum computing.

[Drashner1]

Neat!

Depending on how small they can make this work I can see it having applications in microtechnology as well. And possibly in robotics across large and small scales. Likely other things I'm not thinking of right now.

Todd