TITLE: Can a magnetic ball "diffract" around a metal object?
QUESTION [0 upvotes]: Consider a magnetic ball falling through a copper pipe. It falls slower than it would if it wasn't near any copper. We can use this to determine that the closer a magnetic ball is to copper, the slower it falls.
Now lets have a magnetic ball falling past a copper block. The side closer to the copper block is moving slower than the other side. It should start spinning as a result. Ignoring air friction and the Magnus effect, would the ball's path curve around the copper block(similarly to how a photon diffracts)?

REPLY [3 votes]: Can a magnetic ball “diffract” around a metal object?

Yes.
An eddy current separator (see the picture) works on this principle. The difference is that the magnet there can not have a translation movement. It is the nonferrous object the one wwhich is deflected. However, according to Newton's third law, the same force that deflects the nonferrous materials also acts on the magnet which would have been pushed in a certain direction had it not been held on place.

Source
{"set_name": "stack_exchange", "score": 0, "question_id": 220049}