### NAMING OF BIRDS + A BIT OF WHAT GOES ON ###

The below two links ~ these explanations infest science textbooks so as to pass an exam & understand nothing

Your questions are *answered* here:

http://www.coolmagnetman.com/maghow.htm

And here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet

### MAYBE NEARER THE TRUTH ###

In our universe now there seems to be just four fundamental forces. When the universe began these four forces didn't exist apart like today ~ instead they were one unified something-or-other (or they cancelled & were nothing ?).

By the time the universe was one trillionth of a second old the four forces had 'peeled away' from each other one-by-one & achieved separate identities. The force that you are asking about is called electromagnetism & it was the result of the electroweak force splitting into electromagnetism & the weak nuclear force

Nobody understands this, but it's talked about in terms of Heat, Symmetry & the Phase Transitions of the early universe. Basically it's madness & can only really be communicated in terms of mathematics. It doesn't translate out of maths

### DEFINITELY NEARER THE TRUTH ###

Look at Tom Hartley's site. He's a PhD & knows nothing & he knows he knows nothing. This means he's getting somewhere by being busy knowing nothing... On the one page I've linked there are many things to think about & also he quotes Richard Feynman. This tells me Tom Hartley is worth reading. Give it a go:

http://tomhartley.posterous.com/how-do-magnets-work-0

FEYNMAN QUOTE: “... this boy said to me, 'See that bird standing on the stump there? What's the name of it?'

I said, 'I haven't got the slightest idea'

He said, 'It’s a brown-throated thrush. Your father doesn't teach you much about science.'

I smiled to myself, because my father had already taught me that [the name] doesn't tell me anything about the bird. He taught me 'See that bird? It's a brown-throated thrush, but in Germany it's called a halsenflugel, and in Chinese they call it a chung ling and even if you know all those names for it, you still know nothing about the bird--you only know something about people; what they call that bird. Now that thrush sings, and teaches its young to fly, and flies so many miles away during the summer across the country, and nobody knows how it finds its way,' and so forth. There is a difference between the name of the thing and what goes on."

###

Michael

###

I  am a science teacher at a secondary school in hampshire and this was a piece of class work submitted by a year 8 student to answer this!

I was impressed and i hope you are too!

What is magnetism and how does it work?

Magnetism is tricky concept to explain, it is a force which attracts other metals and magnets. There are only three metals which are magnetic- iron, nickel and cobalt. Steel is also magnetic because it has iron in it. These metals are made up of tiny crystals which make up tiny magnetic domains; there are around 6000 magnetic domains on the head of one pin.

Each domain in the magnetic metal has its own miniature magnetic field. The fields are so small that they would not be able to attract a paper clip unless all the domains worked together and faced the same way.

It is exactly the same as if a football team have been told by their coach to work together and try to score. The coach is being the magnet, as he is 'attracting' them to go the same way and work together, and the footballers are the domains. If they all work together then they are like magnetised domains, all facing the same way and working together. On the other hand, if they don’t work together and face the opposite ways they will be like un-magnetised domains, so they won’t score because un-magnetised domains cancel each other out.

This model explains exactly what happens inside a magnetic metal, if all the domains face different ways they will cancel each other out, meaning the metal will not be magnetic. Now you may be wondering how you make an un-magnetised iron nail magnetised, it is simple. All you have to do is stroke the side of the iron nail over and over again, this is attracting the domains to all face the same way- the nail is then magnetised.

Conversely to make a magnetised iron nail un-magnetised you drop it, as it jumbles up the domains so they all face different way. Every time you drop a magnet it loses a tiny bit of magnetism, so eventually, if dropped enough times the magnet will become un-magnetised.

Here I am again with another great answer submitted by one of my yr 8 students...

I am going to explain how magnetism works. I will start by telling you about the magnetic metals. The magnetic metals are Iron, Steel, Nickel and Copper. Steel is only magnetic because it contains iron. Steel also has some carbon in it that makes it stronger. I will show how metals are magnetic. Metals are made up of tiny crystals. In each of these crystals, there is a tiny domain. The domains have a small magnetic field each, but it is very small. Only by the use of a magnet can the domains’ magnetic field be strong enough to make the metal magnetic.

 A model to show this is one we used in class. To do this, imagine a class with a teacher and lots of pupils. The teacher is the magnet and the pupils are the domains. The domains are magnetized when the pupils are facing the front and listening. But the domains are unmagnetized when the pupils are looking around and talking.

Another way to show magnetism is through an experiment we did in class. It involved a nail and a magnet with iron filings and paper clips. What we had to do was rub the nail with the magnet until the nail started attracting the paper clips. This meant that the nail was magnetized and the domains were all facing the same direction. Then we hit the nail on the table, this was making the domains cancel each other out. This then means the nail is becoming unmagnetized and it couldn’t attract the paper clips afterwards.

However there is a limit to magnetism because magnets can only pick up a certain amount of things AT ANY ONE TIME. Here is an example. For example, a magnet can only pick up a certain amount of paper clips. Therefore, no matter the strength of a magnet, it will always be able to pick up a certain amount of paper clips before it stops. Unless someone finds a way to break this endless cycle…