Matthew, do you have some reasonably sensitive scales?
place the magnets all in attraction and then all in repulsion and see if the
weight changes!
John Berry
Matthew Redmond wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I did an experiment about two three months back now with five ceramic
> doughnut shaped magnets (@15mm diameter, 5mm diameter hole, 2-3 mm thick)
> and a large bag of polystyrene beads commonly used for bean bags.
>
> The 5 magnets were held together by having a small steel bolt placed down
> the center of the magnets and with a nut on the other end. (I also tried
> holding them together...which also worked...)
>
> One of the magnets on the rod was switched, ie
>
> sn, "ns" , sn, sn, sn.
>
> when joined together the magnets were then placed in a big bowl full of
> polystyrene beads. When pulled out, the majority of the beads that were
> still "Stuck" on the magnet were located at the point where the magnetic
> fields were "fighting" each other. To make sure I repeated the experiment
> and got a family member who did not see the order the magnets were in, to
> show me where she thought the "rouge" magnet was...she got it right every
> time...
>
> I have a few ideas on this, but would like to hear from others before I
> make my self sound just a tad daft.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matthew.