Compasses and special metal filings help you "see" the invisible force of magnetic fields. [2:25]

[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....

In this physics lab students discover the invisible magnetic field where the magnet can exert its power to push or pull.

Investigate with a bar magnet and coils to learn about Faraday's law. You can also play with electromagnets, generators, and transformers!

The invention of the light bulb quickly created the need to track people's electricity usage. In 1872, Samuel Gardiner built the first simple power meter: a lamp with an attached clock that recorded the time the light was on.

This lab was designed to have students test the things that can induce a current in a coil of wires. This lab is a purely quantitative lab.

This lab is designed to have students look at the deflection of a cathode ray beam using magnetic fields and electric fields.

Try this quiz about Earth's magnetic shield.

This lab was designed to have students test the factors that determine how much current is induced in a circuit when area of the circuit is changed. This lab is a quantitive lab that supplements the lab on magnetic flux.

The Earth, the moon, the stars and just about everything in between has a magnetic field, and scientists use magnetometers when they need to know the strength of those fields.

Computers evolve into PCs, researchers discover one new subatomic particle after another and the space age gives our psyches and science a new context.

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison duke it out over the best way to transmit electricity and Heinrich Hertz is the first person (unbeknownst to him) to broadcast and receive radio waves.

The telephone and first practical incandescent light bulb are invented while the word "electron" enters the scientific lexicon.

The Industrial Revolution is in full force, Gramme invents his dynamo and James Clerk Maxwell formulates his series of equations on electrodynamics.

The legendary Faraday forges on with his prolific research and the telegraph reaches a milestone when a message is sent between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD.

Hans Christian Orsted's accidental discovery that an electrical current moves a compass needle rocks the scientific world; a spate of experiments follows, immediately leading to the first electromagnet and electric motor.

Defense-related research leads to the computer, the world enters the atomic age and TV conquers America.

New tools such as special microscopes and the cyclotron take research to higher levels, while average citizens enjoy novel amenities such as the FM radio.

Scientists' understanding of the structure of the atom and of its component particles grows, the phone and radio become common, and the modern television is born.

Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity and his theory on the quantum nature of light, which he identified as both a particle and a wave. With ever new appliances, electricity begins to transform everyday life.

No fancy movement in this tutorial, but these rules come in very handy when trying to understand some of what's going on in our other tutorials.

Get the swing of electromagnetic induction with this simple tutorial. (Java tutorial)

Experiment with the torsion balance and see what happens first by giving the rod a charge, and then by moving the charged rod closer to the outer metal sphere of the instrument. Observe what happens to the needle as the charge increases.

Read about Charles Augustin de Coulomb, who didn't invent the torsion balance, but was the first to discover it could be used to measure electrical charge- the first device capable of such a feat.