from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

Just imagine: Hockey players taking the ice with magnets embedded in their equipment.

It is the stuff of dreams. The theory, according to a cohort of engineering students at Carnegie Mellon University, is that with magnets also fitted into the boards, the similarly magnetized players would be repelled when they approached the walls and avoid injury-causing impacts.

“Think of two magnets being pushed together,” explained Diana Haidar, assistant teaching professor in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. “It’s the same polarity. They bounce off each other. So if you’re going to slam into a hard wall, when you approach, you bounce off because of the natural force.”

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