Magnetism Lab

Ariana Gomez
PHY 300-04
10/25/15
Purpose: To observe some properties of
magnets and find magnetic field lines.
Materials:
3D magnetic demonstrator
Bar magnets

Petri dish & sewing needle

Magnaprobe

Q1. Why is it not possible to cut a bar

magnet in half, thereby obtaining an
isolated N or S pole?

You can keep cutting a bar magnet, however, the new pieces will each
have a new set of poles. So its practically impossible to cut a bar
magnet in have with isolated poles.
*(so long as it is done very slowly and carefully, its said that its
possible to cut a bar in half and still maintain their own isolated poles)

Q2. Explain why all objects are not

magnetic.

Atoms with either unpaired electrons, or unfilled sub-shells, or both,

are characteristically magnetic. So basically, metals with uneven
electrons or half shells are magnetic.

Q3. Can you think of reasons that

heating and vibration will destroy
permanent magnetism?

Any vibration, or excessive heating, tends to destroy permanent

magnetism. Magnetism really depends on the arrangement of the
molecules in the magnetic substance. Their displacement can cause
partial or total loss of external magnetism because the molecules can
lose their positions.

Q4. Develop a step-by-step procedure

for determining if one nail is
magnetized or if both are. If only one
is, how do you find out?

Step 1 - to check if both nails are magnetized, try placing both next to
each other. Also, switch them around to check to see if either end (the
point of the head of the nail) have an N or S pole. Record results.
Step 2 - If step 1 hasnt shown any results, test one nail to see if its
magnetic. To do this, take nail A and rub the point at the middle of
nail B. Switch to nail B and do the same procedure. Record results.
(The middle of the nails are magnetically neutral so well see if this
affects either one).
Step 3 The last thing that can be done is that now since both nails
have been rubbed at a neutral spot, test once again the same procedure
as step 1 and see now if either ends of both nails are magnetized.
Record your answers.
(This may work since by rubbing the nails in the middle, they have
essentially become neutralized. Now, we may get better results.)

Procedure, accompanied by pictures if our results during the experiment

I.

Using a 3D magnetic demonstrator and magnets: (1) insert magnets with like poles facing each other and (2)
repeat but with opposite poles facing each other. What differences did you observe?
1. With like poles facing each other, I saw that
there didnt seem to be much activity. Also, the
magnets kept trying to come out.

II.

2. The opposite happened when I

inserted the magnets w/opposite poles
facing each other. The magnetism seemed
greater, or at least there was more activity.

Move the Magnaprobe around a bar magnet.

Blue end of the probe = South, Red end of the probe= North
Whichever way the bar magnet went, the opposite pole on the Magnaprobe followed. What was really
interesting to see was that the probe was able to rotate and didnt stop at a certain angle really. It was
attracted to the opposite pole and made sure to follow in the direction of the bar magnet.

S
S

N
N

III.

Rub the eye of a needle on one end of the bar magnet. Record the polarity of the magnet (eye= S, point= N).
After inserting the needle into Styrofoam balls and having it float in water, note which end of the needle points
toward the geographical North.

After being rubbed on the bar magnet, the eye of the

needle gained the polarity of S.
In this first picture, we simply placed the compass on
the table and removed any magnets that were near so we
can see if the needle would point towards the
geographical North. And to our surprise, it did. The point
was facing towards the 110 N freeway (towards
Downtown LA) while the eye seemed to be facing more
towards Long Beach (S).

In this picture, we simply used a bar magnet and placed

it near the dish to see if the needle would follow. Here,
its very close, but we also tried it by placing the bar
magnet farther away and the needle still followed in its
direction. (here, the point is being attracted to the bar
magnet because we used the S pole on the bar, so the
needle had a polarity of N)
We also switched the poles on the needle to see if the
effect would still work, and it did.