Magnetic Fields

Guest post by Dad. (Chris)

 

Presley and Rachael had their first lesson in magnetic fields.  We unpacked a kit made to teach all about how magnets work and the fields they create.

The first thing they did was learn how to be careful with the magnets as they can be quite delicate if they hit each other with force.  They each played with a couple of magnets to learn about the opposing and attracting forces of the North and South ends(poles), at this point I also explained that like a magnet the earth also has a North and South end(pole).  To show this we used the compass provided in the kit to see where the North pole of the earth was located, however when we placed the compass on the table it did not point to what I knew as true North.  We learned that this is caused by the fact that the compass was stored next magnets in the box therefore altering the compasses reading.

We were able to correct this by placing a magnet at the north point on the compass and having the needle point towards the magnet then slowly turning the magnet so the opposite end was pushing the needle away from the magnet.  This procedure actually reset the compasses ability to read true North.  Now the kids were able to find where North actually was and also learned how to find East, West and South based on where the needle pointed.  

            Our second experiment was to view the opposing forces of a magnet.  We made two groups of three magnets and placed them in the spine of a book.  I explained that if the North end faces the North end they will not want to stick together but if you flip one set of magnets so that the South end faces the North end they will stick together.  I strategically placed the same two ends together and as they pushed them towards one another one moved away from the other magnet.  They were able to identify that the ends facing each other were the same.  Rachael asked what would happen if you flipped one over.  I told her to try.  As she flipped over one set of magnets they quickly attracted to each other catching her finger in the middle to the amusement of everyone at the table.