If you watch hit TV show Lost, I have some bad news. You have been learning about Electromagnetism this whole time. Lost is a weekly physics lecture taught to us by the Dharma Initiative so I hope you haven't been skipping class this last season/term! If, by chance, you didn't actually notice you were enrolled in University of Dharma Initiative's E&M 101 then let me recap some material for the final exam. Keep in mind: Lost is a work of fiction and could potentially be writhing with pseudoscience.

Caution: Lost Spoilers Within, if you haven't watched all of the episodes thus far turn back now and save yourself from this forbidden knowledge!

It is widely speculated among Lost theorists that the Island is a giant research project in areas of "meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and Utopian Socialism" according to the Swan Orientation Film (2x03). At the time of writing this article it is unclear about the nature of these experiments but many mysterious electromagnetic phenomena have been observed by the crash survivors.

Most simply, in 1x13, Sayid clearly notes that magnetic north on his compass is very different from true north. This combined with several cases of nautical and aeronautical crashes beg for an electromagnetic explanation.

Conveniently for us, "The Swan", an electromagnetism research facility, was the first hatch discovered by Boon and Locke. This mysterious research station contains a sealed off wall emitting some interesting magnetic fields. Elementary examination questions in regards to this mystery are as follows:

1. Calculate the strength of the magnetic field required to pull the key off Jack's body in 2x01.

We see the strength of the magnetic field vary from attracting a key around Jack's neck to flinging dangerous cutlery across the room as the timers countdown approaches Egyptian symbols. So calculating a rough upper and lower bound should be expected.

2. Calculate the strength of the magnetic field required to pull ferrous steel forks and knives across a room in 2x23.

A large portion of the exam is on the discharge incident below:

It could be speculated that a mechanism within the Swan station acts as a capacitor. Every 108 minutes the capacitor must be discharged to the earth or else a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse could be released. Possible exam questions could require you to determine the dielectric material in the capacitor in order to store a certain amount of charge.

When such a release is eminent, as seen on several occasions, the blast doors close in the station to shield the computer terminal from the strong magnetic fields which could damage it. This type of shielding is called a Faraday Cage and is common in many consumer products.

In the discharge incident above, which The Others confirm fried communication gear across the island, Desmond concludes that a similar disruption may have caused the crash of Ocean Flight 815.

3. Planes can withstand strikes of lightning easily due to aluminum shielding and all sorts of surge protection on circuitry. Hard drives can be erased by a magnetic flux density of 0.6 Tesla and the onboard circuitry can be damaged permanently by a field strength of 1.5 Tesla (Source: Some Sketchy Patent). What strength of pulse could cause control malfunction, discounting the plane physically splitting in half mid-flight, at 5000 ft above the island.

Due to the lack of actual measurements from the television show, many questions should be qualitative. The discharge incident was referred to as "the day the sky went purple" without any sort of explanation of the optical phenomena occurring.

4. Normal daylight is composed of mostly blue wavelengths due to Rayleigh scattering off air particles. In particular, the color violet is at the end of the visual spectrum, around 380-420 nanometers. In theory, explain how this "shift" in wavelengths could occur. (Hint)

Even one of the Island's most supernatural mysteries may have electromagnetic ties. As early as 1x04, when Locke confronts the "Smoke-Monster", it gives off distinct chattering electrical sounds. In 3x15, the Monster is repelled by high frequency sonic fences.

5. Is it plausible to levitate a cloud of ferrous particles given a sufficiently large magnetic field and, given a complex enough field, use said cloud to casually uproot trees?

With only the 3rd season completed thus far, many questions and answers are speculative in regards to the science. Due to this, bonus marks will be generous.

And finally, the exam's bonus question may require you to identify the equations/magnet strengths on the blast door map picture below or explain how the Casimir effect mentioned in the Orchid Orientation Film might cause rabbit duplication! So study now and good luck on the final.

For more information and theories be sure to check the Electromagnetism article on Lostpedia!