[meteorite-list] A bit OT: magnets and conductors
From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 11 14:15:19 2006 Message-ID: <A8044CCD89B24B458AE36254DCA2BD0701DFBA88_at_0005-its-exmp01.us.saic.com> Hi Kevin, > Hey, meteorite collectors, go and get your rare earth magnets > (mine is 3/4 inch dia, 1 inch long) and a small bit of flat > Aluminium. Hold the magnets N or S end (doesn't matter which) > about 2 or 3 mm above the Aluminium and move the magnet quickly > from one end to the other, DaDaaaaaaa, the Aluminium follows > the magnet. I tried this with gold and the same thing happens. > Wowee was I surprised, all my life I thought Aluminium, Copper, > Gold were not affected by a magnet. It is apparently called > Lenz's law and involves magnetic coupling to usually non- > magnetic material. What you're seeing is an excellent demonstration of the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Non-magnetic materials that are nevertheless good conductors of electricity (gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminum, etc.) are affected by changing magnetic fields because those fields will cause currents to flow in the conductors. And whenever you have current flowing in a conductor, that current itself produces a magnetic field. In Kevin's example, the current-created magnetic field opposes the field of the rare earth magnet. An experiment that shows this effect even more dramatically is to drop a small disk-shaped neodymium magnet through a hollow copper pipe held vertically. (Use a copper pipe that has an inner diameter just a tiny bit larger than the magnetic disk's diameter.) You will be shocked how slowly the magnet freefalls through the pipe! --Rob Received on Mon 11 Sep 2006 02:14:55 PM PDT |
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