I spent about 2 hours using a large 2 inch round magnet playing around with another magnet I taped to the end of 8 paperclips connected together. Got a few interesting results when I did this or that but everyone messes around with a magnet on a flat surface pointed to the ground when they are bored but curious don't they? In the midst of this curiosity of mine, born out of boredom, I got the idea to hold the large 2 inch magnet in the air above me and watched the magnet taped to the paper clips (along with the paper clips themselves via the magnetic attraction) prove that at least in the short term they are more powerful than gravity when I separated the two by an inch and a half or so. However, Newton suggested that anything moving against a force expends energy so ultimately the magnet attached to the paperclip chain would most likely lose magnetic force quite rapidly in relative terms. So I decided to do some research about the atmosphere in order to figure out if there were any magnetic particles in the air that could be utilized as opposed to merely holding a large magnet in my hand above me to get the results I speak of. I was thinking hover craft and UFO disks like the child who still lives in me would. But then I ran into an article that at once dashed my dreams but made me think of something else. It said that ions that create a charge for example in the form of lightning are not attracted to either pole of a magnet. I thought... interesting! That wasn't what I wanted to read but it got me thinking more. Consider this imaginary scenario. Two people are standing under a tree during a lightening storm (an ignorant thing to do I know!). So lightening strikes. What if one were covered by a magnetic pole (either north or south) via magnetic clothing or a magnetic hat for example? Would the strike only harm the one without any magnetic pole or would they both be harmed regardless? If magnetic poles repel ionic discharge then why don't we have magnets attached to things that normally get threatened by lightning? I remember the house a block away got hit by lightning a few years ago and it started one heck of a fire. What if there had been magnets above it in order to repel the charge? I don't know. I'm just curious about what I've read and what I happen to be thinking at the moment. Any thoughts???