A unit all about magnets! Explore magnetic forces, types of magnets, and more through these informative activities.

Explore the interactions between a compass and bar magnet. Discover how to use a battery and wire to make a magnet.

An interesting activity where students make a ferrofluid (a liquid with magnetic particles floating in it) and explore how it responds to a magnetic field. Well illustrated.

A module that uses pictures, videos, reading passages, and review question to go over what a magnet and magnetic pole are, and how magnetic force is related to magnetic field. This site may require free registration to access all...

In this activity discover the direction of the magnetic field by making patterns of the field visible with iron filings.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Why the Earth is a magnet and how its inner structure relates to its magnetic field.

This site is a description of the earth's magnetic field, including a section on the "Dynamo effect," a proposed explanation for the origin of the earth's magnetic field.

Students teams each use a bar magnet, sheet of paper and iron shavings to reveal the field lines as they travel around a magnet. They repeat the activity with an electromagnet made by wrapping thin wire around a nail and connecting...

Students are introduced to a unique fluid--ferrofluids--the shape of which can be influenced by magnetic fields. This activity supplements traditional magnetism activities and offers comparisons between large-scale materials and...

In this interactive tutorial students will explore how a magnetic field affects a current-carrying wire and also how two current-carrying wires affect each other. They will learn about Biot-Savart, Ampere's Law and the magnetic field...

Physicists sometimes study matter under extreme conditions. For example, think of the emptiness of interstellar space vs. the unimaginable crush of pressure at the center of a neutron star, or an object dipped in liquid nitrogen vs. the...

Most of us have seen the rainbow-hued breakdown of the composition of light. Light is of course a form of energy. A magnetic field changes the behavior of light- a phenomenon known as the Zeeman effect.

Create a magnetic field that is stronger than Earth so a compass needle will orient itself to the new field in this activity.

Think iron, nickel and other "ferromagnetic" substances are the only ones with magnetic properties? In fact, everything reacts to magnetic fields in some way.

Hands-on activities help students develop an understanding of Earth's magnetic field. Students use iron filings to explore the magnetic field around a magnet, record their observations, then apply their experience with the magnet to...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Looks at magnetic materials and the structure and breadth of a magnetic field. The concept of magnetic domains is explained, and how they behave in a magnetic field....

An activity where students test different materials to see which allow magnetic lines of force to pass through them and which block the magnetic lines of force.

This lesson begins with an activity in which students induce EMF in a coil of wire using magnetic fields. Then, demonstrations on Eddy currents show how a magnetic field can slow magnets just as Eddy currents are used to slow large...

This lesson begins with a demonstration of the deflection of an electron beam. Students then review their knowledge of the cross product and the right hand rule with sample problems. After which, students study the magnetic force on a...

In this interactive unit students will see how magnets work and how they are used in some of the most useful and common devices today.

Although specifically designed for physics students at Caltech, anyone interested in learning more about electricity, magnetism or various other physical phenomena can benefit by exploring these interactive applets. A circuit tutorial...

This is a hands-on, inquiry-based lesson that includes three magnetic stations in which students or small groups rotate in order to test and discover different magnetic properties and then use their knowledge to build a Maglev Train...

Explore the magnetic fields around different shapes of magnets.

In this classroom activity, the students will investigate the magnetic pull of a bar magnet at varying distances with the use of paper clips. Students will hypothesize, conduct the experiment, collect the data, and draw conclusions that...