What’s Your Idea?

Physics –Magnetism

Photo courtesy of (Windell Oskay@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution
 The students are discussing what makes a material magnetic.

A material has to be made of a specific

type of metal to attract a magnet.

Yes I agree. Any other metal will repel a

magnet.

I disagree. Anything that is made of metal

is magnetic.

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Materials like wood and plastic are not
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magnetic, but they don’t repel a magnet.
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 Possible Points of Discussion
A material has to be made of a specific type of metal to attract a magnet.
Only iron, cobalt and nickel are magnetic materials. They are all a type of metal.
Alloys (mixtures of two or more metals) can be magnetic if they contain enough
of a type of magnetic metal, e.g. steel, which contains a high proportion of iron.

Yes I agree. Any other metal will repel

a magnet.
All other metals are non-magnetic, and
will not react to a magnet. This means
they will not be attracted by or repelled
by a magnet. If a material is repelled, it
is pushed away. Non-magnetic
materials are not repelled – they just do
nothing.
 Possible Points of Discussion
I disagree. Anything that is made of
metal is magnetic.
Alloys (mixtures of two or more
metals) can be magnetic if they
contain enough of a type of magnetic
metal, e.g. steel, which contains a high
proportion of iron. For a metal to be
magnetic it must contain some
magnetic metal: iron, nickel or cobalt.

Materials like wood and plastic are not

magnetic, but they don’t repel a
magnet.
Non-magnetic materials are not
repelled – they just do nothing.
 The students are discussing how to make an electromagnet stronger.

Use more coils in the wire.

Use less coils in the wire.

Increase the current in the wire.

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Reduce the current in the wire. r id
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yo
W
h at’s
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 Possible Points of Discussion
Use less coils in the wire.
Use more coils in the wire.
When the wire of a circuit is wrapped
into a coil, the magnetic field becomes
stronger. Increasing the number of coils
in the wire (solenoid) will increase the
strength of the electromagnet.

Reduce the current in the wire.

Increase the current in the wire.
The current flowing through the wire
generates a magnetic field around it.
Increasing the current that flows
through the wire
will increase the strength of
the electromagnet.
 The students are comparing the Earth to a magnet.

It has a north pole and south pole like a

magnet.

It’s not shaped like a magnet. Magnets

are always bars.

It’s because the core of the Earth is made

of iron.

The Earth is not magnetic. If I drop ea?

something metal on the Earth, I can always r id
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pick it up.
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 Possible Points of Discussion
It has a north pole and south pole like
a magnet.
The Earth has a magnetic north and
south pole, which behave in a similar
way to that of the north and south
poles of a bar magnet by producing a
magnetic field.

It’s not shaped like a magnet. Magnets

are always bars.
Although the Earth is roughly
spherical in shape, the mantle of the
Earth’s structure moves and creates a
magnetic field. It is because of this
that the Earth behaves like a magnet.
 Possible Points of Discussion
It’s because the core of the Earth is
made of iron.
Iron is a magnetic metal, which may
have something to do with the cause of
the Earth’s magnetic field, however
scientists do not have a definitive
understanding of how the magnetic
field is produced.

The Earth is not magnetic. If

I drop something metal on the Earth, I
can always pick it up.
The Earth generates a magnetic field.
However, the Earth itself is not largely
made of magnetic materials.