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Culture Documents
Objectives:
Materials:
Bar and cow magnets, magnetic compasses, rulers, cereals and papers
Strategy:
Activity 1. Grind the cereal into very fine pieces. Use the cow magnet
to
attract iron from the cereal.
Activity 2. On the projector, show the two poles of two magnets and how
they attract or repel each other.
Activity 3. Break a bar magnet into two halves. Turn a half magnet
around
on the projector to show they repel each other; magnetic poles always occur
in
pairs on each magnet. (Otherwise the north half and the south half poles
should
always be attracted.)
Activity 6. Place two magnets on the overhead. Use Newton's Third Law
to
"show" that the magnets pull (or push) equally on each other. Therefore, the
force must be proportional to each magnet's strength (m, m'). Show that the
pull or push (F) is larger when the distance (r) between the magnets is less,
thus the force (F) is inversely proportional to the distance (r). It is not
obvious that the force is inversely proportional to the square of the
distance ,
but the similarity to the Gravitational Force (Fg) and the Electric Force (Fe)
should lead to acceptance of the square of the distance between the magnets
in
the formula:
F = k mm'
r2