Falling conductive loop: A simple analytical model for magnetic damping

The motion of a conductive object is profoundly affected by the presence of a strong magnetic field. A conductive loop falling inside an MRI magnet can serve as an analytically solvable model to explore magnetic damping. We present a pair of magneto-mechanical coupled equations to describe its motion and verify their solution with experimental data. A simple formula for the loop's falling time was obtained, which indicates that magnetic damping is proportional to B02.