MAGNETISM

Have you ever played with a magnet? If you have, i will know that it picks up things like paper clips and drawing pins, pulling them with the force of magnetism. I may have noticed that a magnet will only pick up certain things, mostly ones made of iron or steel. Magnets are usually made from iron because iron is the only common metal that is magnet.

Magnets do not always attract, or pull things towards them. Sometimes they repel things, or push them away. I can make this happen if i have two magnets. If i bring one end of the first magnet up to one end of the first magnet up to one end of the second magnet, the ends will either stick together (attract) or fly apart (repel).

Take one of your magnets and hang it from one piece of cotton tied round the middle. Do this several times. What happens? I should find that it always points in the same direction when it stops moving. One end points to the north, and the other to the South. We call the north-pointing end of a magnet, its north pole, and the south-pointing end, its south pole. It seems as if the earth has magnets at its north pole and south pole, which attract your magnet.

Wherever you go on Earth, you find that a swinging magnet always ends up pointing north and south. So if you carry a magnet about with you, you can can always tell which way is north. An easier way to do at this is to use a compass.