Science

Permanent magnets can weaken with time. If they're subjected to mechanical shock, stored improperly with other magnets, or exposed to extreme heat, the magnetic field will weaken. Some magnets can...

You can measure the force of magnets if you have a gaussmeter, an electronic device with a read-out calibrated in units called gauss. Gaussmeters come in both handheld and benchtop styles.

Heat can be created from magnets by putting magnetic material into a high-frequency oscillating magnetic field that makes the magnet's polarity switch back and forth at a high-enough rate to...

Neodymium and other rare earth metals make the strongest permanent magnets. Smaller neodymium magnets are powerful enough, but the larger ones need careful handling. Keep your magnet well away...

Super magnets are used in toys, computers and even the music industry as a lightweight means of keeping equipment portable. Super magnets are permanent magnets that require very little matter but...

The gauss is a measure of the strength of magnetic fields, relating force, length and electric current. It is used to conveniently measure weak fields, such as a small permanent magnets. Because...

Michael Faraday was the first to notice, in the 19th century, that a magnet creates electricity in a closed electric circuit that cuts through its magnetic field lines. Faraday noticed this by...

Magnets are used in spa pumps in two different ways: they can be either a part of certain energy-efficient motors used inside the pumps, or used to help purify the water as it passed through the...

There are several options to determine the polarity of a magnet, that is, which end is the north pole and which end is the south. The basic strategy is comparison: seeing how it behaves around...

Magnetism and electricity are two closely related phenomena, and in fact each can be used to cause the other. There is a growing movement of people building personal magnetic generators to cut...

While magnets can came in many forms, bar magnets are always rectangular. They are dark gray or black and are commonly composed of alnico, a combination of aluminum, nickel and cobalt. Bar...

The term super magnet is slang for the neodymium magnet, an extremely powerful magnetic alloy developed in the 1980s. These hardy and versatile magnets have found uses across several industries in...

Strontium is an alkaline earth metal. Like other alkaline earth metals, its compounds are more important than the pure element. According to the U. S. Geological Survey, the majority of strontium...

A magnet creates electricity directly when an electric circuit cuts through its magnetic field lines---a phenomenon first noticed by Michael Faraday quite by accident during a demonstration during...

Magnets can be combined to either reduce or increase their strength, depending on their orientation to each other. Combining two equal magnets will not double their strength, but it will come close.

Magnets have both a north and south pole; whichever pole of one magnet faces a pole of the other determines whether the magnets attract or not. Iron is a common material used as a magnet.

Something is considered magnetic when it attracts or repels an item. Every magnet has two sides, known as poles. When similar poles are near each other, the magnets are repelled; when opposite...

Bar magnets make solid science teaching aids; they're safe, inexpensive and keep their magnetism for years. Additionally, the north and south poles are marked, so it's easy to show which poles...

Magnets are able to exert forces at a distance, such as by attracting elements like iron and steel. They have two poles called north and south. These poles are so labeled because of an attraction...

Magnets are useful; they can hold other metal objects, attract and repel other magnets, or let you exploit magnetic fields in other ways. Most are inexpensive, so they're handy for many practical...

Magnetic levitation is an amazing effect that can play tricks on the eyes and improve nearly any project. Levitation occurs when similar poles of magnets repel each other in a confined area. Some...

Magnets and magnetic poles have an effect on our lives each and every day. From compasses to the Earth itself, their strength constantly affects us.

Metals, such as iron and steel, naturally contain microscopic magnets inside their structure, but these do not attract to anything because all of these atomic magnets point in different directions...

A magnet is any object with a magnetic field. In order for a magnet to attract an object, the object needs to be ferromagnetic. However, magnets can attract each other when the poles are opposite.

From a refrigerator magnet to the magnetic strip on a debit card, magnets allow us to navigate the globe, run our computers, use most machines and drive from place to place effortlessly.

People use magnets to decorate refrigerators and hold up notes, as well as for more serious purposes, like recording data onto hard disk drives, lifting scrap metal, or navigation via compass. ...

While most materials have some magnetic properties, relatively few can be made into magnets. Iron and a few other related metals can easily become magnetized. When alloyed with other metals or...

From its discovery in lodestone in ancient times, to modern scientific research, magnetism has long fascinated people. Magnets and magnetic materials are an important part of everyday modern life....

Since their discovery, magnets have been a curiosity and a useful tool for many applications. Lodestone, the name assigned to naturally occurring magnets, can transfer magnetism to other metals....

Electromagnets are made from coils of wire that carry electric currents. These current-carrying wires produce magnetic fields that have north and south poles just like regular magnets. ...

Almost everyone has heard or seen David Blaine levitate or float on TV. Do you want to learn how to float? Do you want to learn how to levitate off the ground to impress your friends? Well if you...

Magnets are a cheap and easy way to fix many small problems in your home. Small or large magnets can help keep items in place (such as faulty drawers), or simply keep your home organized. Using...

Magnets are extremely useful devices. They exist in an enormous variety of magnitudes and sizes. Unfortunately, that variety makes it especially difficult to obtain a strong magnet and know it has...

People use magnets to keep notes on refrigerator doors. They're an essential part of technology items such as speakers, motors and computer hard disks. And credit cards carry account information...

Neodymium magnets are magnets made with rare-earth materials, usually neodymium, iron and boron. They are very powerful and exciting devices with which to experiment.

Neodymium magnets are known for their exceptional strength. Keeping one of these near your credit cards or cassette tape collection would certainly be a bad idea--data loss would be almost...

Magnets can destroy data. While this is certainly true of the floppy disc and some (very) old hard drives, you might wonder whether it's true of musical mediums such as cassette tapes and CDs....

Magnets are pieces of metals containing iron, cobalt, nickel or steel which have all of their molecules aligned in the same direction. Each molecule has a north and a south pole which when...

Neodymium magnets are created from rare elements that are collected and melted into a hybrid that provides an exceptionally strong magnet used to transport and hold materials. Although the magnets...

Whether you're searching for treasure on the beach or picking up loose change at the park, using a metal detector can be both fun and exciting. Learning a few tricks of the trade may help improve...

People have been fascinated by magnets for at least three thousand years. The ancient Greeks were familiar with the properties of lodestones, which are natural magnets found in volcanic rock....

The basic premise of levitation revolves around the principles of magnetic polarity. While two magnets of opposite polarities are naturally attracted to one another, two magnets with the same...

We've all seen it: try to press the same pole of two magnets against each other, and there's a repellent force driving the two magnets apart. To completely understand why, precisely, magnets do...

Magnets are handy gadgets that you can use in plenty of ways. They are also inexpensive and come in a variety of sizes. They make nice gifts for people you want to remember when you are on...

Accounts of magnetic materials being discovered date back to Ancient Greece. It is said that "lodestones" were discovered there by a shepherd named Magnes when his shoes and staff, which both...

Magnets work because they are surrounded by magnetic fields. A magnetic field is simply the movement of electrons. As electrons become more excited, the strength of the magnetic field increases....

Magnetic fields are generated by magnets, and some magnetic fields can be stronger than others, attracting objects called pheral magnetic objects. Discover how magnetic fields can repel as well as...

Hand-held generators come in handy when you need a little extra power for portable devices such as a radio or flashlight. To make a hand-held generator, all you have to do, in essence, is to move...

Iron is one of three basic metals that can be magnetized. Creation of a permanent magnet requires special equipment, as the iron rod would need to be heated past 1418 degrees Fahrenheit. But a...

The strongest magnets known are electromagnets. Sometimes they will even stick together on either side of your hand, and they are great for science experiments. If you like making your own science...