Why don astronauts use a magnetic catwalk to somewhat simulate gravity in space?
It wouldn’t work. In order for the boots to remain securely attached to the floor they would need to attract with a force equivalent to a reasonable fraction of your body weight. This is a force you would have to overcome to detach your foot from the floor, which would be very unnatural – your foot weighs only a few pounds when you pick it up on Earth. Applying a lifting force of tens of pounds for every step would rapidly become tiring. Once you have lifted your foot of the floor in all likelihood it will then have considerable excess momentum (since the gripping force will reduce to almost zero almost instantly). This momentum needs to be got rid off somehow – remember there is no gravity to do it. It is probable that the momentum will simply be transferred to the rest of your body which will ultimately tear your other boot off the floor. Finally for the floor to be magnetic in the first place it would need to be skinned in either a ferrous metal or a nickel or cobalt alloy. None of
