Answer:
In Gulliver's Travels, the floating island of Laputa is described as being suspended in the air without any visible means of support, and there is no explicit mention of magnets being involved in its levitation. However, it is worth noting that during the 18th century, when Jonathan Swift wrote the novel, there was a growing interest in the properties of magnets and their potential applications in various fields, including navigation, medicine, and even levitation. In fact, some scholars have suggested that Swift may have been inspired by the popular beliefs and speculations about magnets and their possible effects on gravity and motion.
It's not possible to accurately determine how many magnets would be required to make Laputa, the floating island in Gulliver's Travels, suspended in the air because the idea of a floating island is purely fictional and not based on any known physical principles or scientific laws.
Even if we assume that magnets were involved in the levitation of Laputa, it would depend on a wide range of factors, including the size and weight of the island, the strength and orientation of the magnets, the distance between the magnets and the island, and other variables that are not specified in the novel.
Furthermore, magnets by themselves do not have the power to suspend large objects in mid-air. While magnets can be used to create magnetic levitation, or maglev, for small objects like trains or toy cars, the magnetic fields required to lift an entire island would be orders of magnitude larger and more complex than anything currently feasible with our technology.
In short, the idea of Laputa as a floating island is best understood as a literary and imaginative device, rather than a scientifically plausible concept.
That being said, it's important to remember that Gulliver's Travels is a work of fiction and should be enjoyed primarily as a literary creation, rather than a scientific treatise. The idea of a floating island is a fantastical element that serves to underscore Swift's satirical commentary on various aspects of contemporary society and politics. While it is certainly possible to speculate on the mechanics of how such an island might actually levitate, this is not necessarily the most fruitful or rewarding approach to engaging with the novel's themes and meanings.