Activities and Homework for Tuesday, September 23.
[1] The point of today's activities will be to investigate how magnet strength is affected when magnets are stacked in various ways. We will be using the five different configurations of cubical magnets shown below:
Configuration 1: (just a single cubical magnet)
Configuration 2: (Two magnets stacked end to end, with opposite poles adjacent)
Configuration 3: (Two magnets stacked end to end, with similar poles adjacent)
Configuration 4: (Two magnets stacked side by side, with similar poles adjacent)
Configuration 5: (Two magnets stacked side by side, with opposite poles adjacent)
[2] Which of these configurations are stable? That is, which configurations will stay together as depicted without external help?
[3] Using the method for comparing magnet strength that you developed last week, rank the 5 configurations above from strongest to weakest in terms of overall pole strength. For the configurations that are unstable, use a rubber band to hold the magnets together.
[4] After you have ranked the 5 configurations, see if you can come up with an explanation for the ranking that you observed.
[5] Homework: We know that Iron is ferromagnetic (in fact, that is where the word ferromagnetic comes from). Using whatever references you wish (library, internet, etc…), find at least two other substances that are ferromagnetic. No need to write this up and turn it in - simply email me your answers at John.Elwood@po-box.esu.edu.