We are having fun continuing our lessons on magnets. Here are three experiments we performed…
We had three different shapes of magnets: bar, square, round. We measured the pull of each magnet by placing a paper clip at the end of a ruler and slowly moving each magnet along the ruler, measuring the length at which the magnet engaged with the paper clip.
The second experiement was the same thing, but with the magnet descending vertically. We learned that it takes longer for the engagement with the vertical position, because of the added element of gravity.
The third experiment failed, but it is still worth mentioning. It failed because either our magnets were too weak or the butterflies were too big. We did not try it again with different variables.
We made tissue butterflies and attached a paperclip to each. We then taped the butterflies to a piece of sting and anchored it onto the counter. The idea is to take a magnet and place it just above the butterfly to make it fly without touching it.
