You may have seen a video that shows a bottle cap being popped off using only a fridge magnet and a quarter. The video has been circling the Internet recently and may seem real, but we were pretty skeptical. As magnet-enthusiasts, we naturally had to test out the legitimacy of this bottle opening trick.
If you haven’t seen it already, here is the original video:
We tested out this magnet trick and our findings are below, but you can test it out too with a few items.
Supplies
- Strong magnet
- Unopened bottle
- Quarter
Steps
- Place your bottle on a flat magnet and surface.
- Tap the bottle neck with a quarter and see what happens.
What actually did happen was: nothing. The original video seems to be a well-edited hoax.
One of the first red flags for this experiment was the use of the U.S. quarter. For the most part, today’s quarters are not magnetic, so it doesn’t make much sense to be in the experiment. You could have tapped it with a piece of wood or a rubber eraser-the results would have been the same.
Another reason that this magnet experiment couldn’t be plausible, is that your typical fridge magnet would not have the magnet strength to affect a bottle cap from that distance. We tried to pop open the bottle with a typical fridge magnet and then a stronger N48 grade magnet. Both attempts were frugal in opening the bottle.
However, if you actually want to open a bottle using the powers of magnetism, there are some magnetic bottle openers out there and a quick Google search can help you find one. Lastly, if you have a magnet theory that you’re curious about or a product question, comment or
contact us!
