Magnet Experiments

Diamagnetism is a magnetic property first discovered in 1778 by Dutch scientist Sebald Justinus Brugmans. He discovered the property while using bismuth and antimony and realized they were repelled by magnetic fields. It wasn’t until 1845 that English scientist Michael Faraday named the property diamagnetism while studying elements and compounds that exhibited negative magnetism, meaning they were pushing away from the magnet. In layman's terms, diamagnetism is a property that every element possesses, which causes a weak repulsion from a magnetic field. In contrast, some elements also possess ferromagnetism and paramagnetism, which causes them to be strongly attracted or repulsed by the magnetic field. To show diamagnetism, you can use a DIY magnet experiment with a common everyday food, grapes, to show small repulsion when exposed to a strong rare earth magnet. This experiment will only work with neodymium magnets because of the strong magnetic field they produce.     Continue reading →

Neodymium magnets are not only useful for organizing clutter or making crafts, but also for demonstrating the unique properties of magnetism and magnetic fields. If you’re looking for an easy and fun science experiment, check out this magnetic tutorial for a hollow pyramid with a ring magnet: Continue reading →

Today, people use their keyboards to write more often than they use pens or pencils. If that doesn’t stop you from buying nice new pens, here’s a high-tech way you can display your favorite writing utensil using magnetic levitation: Continue reading →

There are many different ways to see magnetic fields even though they are invisible to the naked eye. You can use a compass or iron filings to determine the direction and boundaries of a magnetic field. Or you can use magnetic field viewer film to see the magnetic field lines of magnets. It’s usually used by hobbyists to examine electronics. So, how does it work? Continue reading →

When you have neodymium magnets the possibilities for innovative DIY crafts and home improvement projects are endless. You can can organize everything more efficiently or hang temporary decorations for fall with magnets. If you add heat shrink tubing to your supply list, there are even more possibilities especially if you want to avoid a gluey mess. Here are five things you can magnetize with heat shrink tubing to make them easily accessible and harder to lose: Continue reading →

Launching a rocket into space is expensive. The current chemical method requires over 800,000 gallons of liquid propellants. On average it costs $450 million per shuttle launch, which is in addition to the cost of the shuttle itself. The Space Shuttle Endeavor cost $1.7 billion. So, as costs continue to rise some scientists and engineers are trying to come up with an alternative launch method. Continue reading →

The popular Iron Man movie franchise and comic features a suit of body armor that could make any engineer green with envy. The Iron Man suit, a work of science fiction, seems to be a feat of futuristic engineering not yet possible today. Or is it? Scientists are working on an impenetrable suit of body armor consisting of iron particles and a carrier liquid. This liquid body armor is possible because it contains magnetorheological (MR) fluids. Continue reading →

Magnetometers are used to measure the direction of a magnetic field or the magnetization of a magnetic material. They can also be used to measure geomagnetic storms. So, if you missed the aurora sightings from the latest geomagnetic storm you can predict the next ones with your own DIY magnetometer. Continue reading →

Magnets can do some amazing things -- like accelerate a train at speeds over 300 mph or power a MRI to look through the human body. However, sometimes its just fun to conduct experiments with them. One interesting experiment to do is to make a paperclip levitate, or seem to float in midair. The experiment is about as simple as it gets, and you can do it with everyday items that you probably have laying around your house. Here’s how you can do it. Continue reading →

Every permanent magnet has a north pole and a south pole. Even if you cut a magnet in half, the two remaining pieces will have a north and south pole. And if you know anything about magnetism, you know that opposites attract. The north pole and south pole of two magnets will pull towards each other, whereas two similar poles will repel each other. Magnetic attraction and repulsion are perhaps the simplest and most well-known properties of magnets. In this experiment, we’re creating a device that shows how magnetic repulsion works and makes learning about it fun. Continue reading →