Investigating How Magnetism Works Through Slime And Wood
I’m hoping to investigate how magnetism works through different types of substances. I chose two unique substances to test magnetism through: slime and wood. I hypothesize that magnets can still work through slime and that they can work through wood, but I hypothesize that they can’t work through both, because the magnetic field will be blocked too much. I designed five different set-ups to test how the magnets react in different ways using these materials. The results of the experiment proved four out of five parts of my hypothesis correct and proved one part of the hypothesis wrong. I learned from my project that the magnetic field can withstand objects in between magnets, but the more you put between the magnets, the less magnetism there is and slowly it will grow weaker and then finally disappear. More research should be done in the future using different materials to test this scientific principle even more.
How …show more content…
Magnetism Works Through Certain Substances
One scientific principle that has always interested me, from back when I was a young child until now, is magnetism. The fact that an invisible force brings two objects together is interesting, but I think it would be even more interesting to test the limits and boundaries of this scientific concept. Since we already know about the basics of magnets, I wanted to push myself farther. I wanted to combine a scientific concept that we’ve already known about for years from learning it from school with something many of us like to learn about for fun outside of school.
Many of my schoolmates and I love to make slime. Slime is one of America’s crazes right now (Kruvant, 2016). When I first made homemade slime it was so fun, but I became even more curious so I added magnets, and that’s how my science fair project was born. I thought it would be a great science fair project to investigate what happens when objects interfere with the magnetic field. I wanted to do this experiment because I wanted to find out if I place magnets inside homemade slime, would the magnets still be attracted to a magnet outside of the slime? I also wanted to know if placing an object between the magnetic slime and the outside magnet would block the magnetic field.
This project will help my classmates and I learn more about magnetism and what affects magnetic attraction and the power of magnetic fields. I thought that putting together fun slime with the science of magnets would be a good way to be entertaining and educational at the same time.
History of Magnets
Magnets are not new to the world because they have a long history. The word magnet comes from the Greeks because it translates as “stone from Magnesia” (Woodford, 2016). Magnesia was a place in Greece where natural magnetic rocks were first found (VanBrackle, n.d.). One of the ideas of how magnets were discovered was that 4,000 years ago a shepherd called Magnets in Northern Greece was standing on a rock and felt the nails in his shoes and his metal stick getting stuck to the rock (Woodford, 2016). The world didn’t know about magnets before this! This rock today is called magnetite or lodestone. When people first found out about magnets they thought they were almost magical because they were so foreign to them and they didn’t understand why they acted like they did. (Philpott, Kalita, para. 3). Some people even thought they could cure sick people and some people thought they could get rid of evil in their lives. People even started using them to help them with navigating (Philpott, Kalita, para. 3).
In the year 1600, a famous scientist called William Gilbert discovered that Earth is a large magnet (Woodford, 2016). He is famous for telling the world that the earth is a magnet with the north magnetic pole in Canada and the south magnetic pole in Antarctica. He is also famous for finding out that you can change the magnetic forces and how strong they are by the temperature of them, by either heating or cooling them. Chinese scientists were aware that magnetite was in the world too and they asked themselves why in needle form would it always face north-south direction in water? That’s how the first magnetic compass was created (Woodford, 2016).
Scientific Principles of the Project
I am exploring how magnetic fields work. What things can the magnetic force work through? Is slime one of the things that the invisible force of magnets can work through? Can the magnets work through the slime and with another thick object between them? I’m testing the strength of magnets when different objects like slime and wood get in the way.
First, I did some research on the scientific principles behind magnetic fields. Through my research, I learned that if you cut a magnet it becomes two whole brand new magnets and that every magnet has two poles, north and south poles. The north pole of one magnet is not attracted to the north pole of the other magnet. The north pole of one is attracted to the south pole of the other. As they say, opposites attract! Some magnets come together like glue because they are attracted to each other but some magnets push other magnets away (Woodford, 2016).
I’m using a bigger magnet outside of the slime to see if the magnetic slime will be attracted to it still or if having the magnets stuck in the slime stops the magnets from working. Or will the wood break the field? Do they just make the magnetic force weaker or does it stay just as strong? Or maybe the magnetic forces are stopped completely. I made the homemade slime and put magnets inside them. I chose slime because it’s a unique material and made me the most curious. I think people in my class are curious about slime too. I created an experiment to see how strong the magnetic field is with different things as obstacles between the magnets.
Why This Project is Important
My experiment is important to do because the whole earth is a magnet, so middle-schoolers should understand how magnets work in all different situations because it is all around us and relevant every day. I set up many different parts to see how the magnetic fields react in different situations.
Method
My experiment has five parts. The first part is that I’m going to see if the magnets in the slime even work when a regular bigger magnet is put on top of the slime. The second part is to see if the magnetic field is strong enough to hold through a thick piece of wood when magnetic slime is on one side and a regular magnet is on the other side of the wood. The third part is I’m going to test magnetic slime on both sides of the wood to see if the magnetic forces work in this situation when the magnets are even weaker in the slime. The fourth part is seeing how the magnets react when I put a regular magnet on either side of the piece of wood, with no slime involved anywhere. The fifth part is seeing if two sections of magnetic slime separated from each other on the table without any wood between them become attracted to each other.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that if magnets are placed both inside the slime and outside the slime, then the magnetism between the two groups of magnets will still hold. If both slime and wood are between the magnets then the magnetic field will be broken. I hypothesize that if just the wood is in between regular magnets then the magnetism will be the strongest. Lastly, I hypothesize that if two sections of magnetic slime are placed next to each other, with no wood between, then there will still be magnetic attraction. I’m excited to see my results!
Performing the Experiment
Next, I began the testing process. The independent variables were the substances coming in between the magnets. The dependent variable is the level of magnetism between the magnets; weak, medium, or strong. In Part 1, I observed there was a strong magnetic attraction between the horseshoe magnet and the magnets within the slime. In Part 2, I observed there was no magnetic attraction when the horseshoe magnet was to the left of the wood and the magnetic slime was to the right of the wood. In Part 3, I observed there was no attraction between the magnets in the slime to the left of the wood to the magnets in the slime to the right side of the wood. In Part 4, I observed that the attraction between the horseshoe magnet and the regular small magnet is so strong even through the piece of wood that I was able to use the horseshoe magnet to control the movement of the smaller magnet, even through the wood! In Part 5, there was very light attraction between the two sections of magnetic slime, but only when the two slimes touched each other, but no attraction at all when the two slimes were 1/2 inch from each other.
Analysis of Results
Here is my analysis of all my observations. In Part 1 of the experiment, it showed me that magnetism does still work through the substance of slime, which proves my hypothesis correct. I predicted that the magnetic field between two magnets would hold even with the obstacle of slime. Part 2 also went along with my hypothesis, but in a different way. It showed me that the magnetic field is broken when slime and wood are both put in between the magnets. This is what I predicted, so I’m happy the results proved my hypothesis right again. Part 3 showed that the magnetic fields couldn’t hold up when two sections of slime and the piece of wood were placed in between the magnets, which is not surprising because the magnetism could not even hold in part 2, which only had one layer of slime in between the magnets. I’m not surprised by these results because magnetism would have to be so strong if it could work through three layers of dense substances. Part 4 was the most interesting part of my experiment.
It showed me that magnetism does work strongly through the substance of wood. It showed me that wood was less of an obstacle for the magnet than the slime was. The small magnet followed where the horseshoe went, so I was able to drag the small magnet around by moving the horseshoe magnet. This part of the experiment reminded me of why many people hundreds of years ago thought of magnets as magical and mystical things, like a secret power of wizardry because of things like this. This shows the power of magnetic fields. Finally, in Part 5, my very last part, it showed me that there is only magnetic attraction through slime when there is one layer of slime between two magnets, but when there are two layers of slime between them, the magnetic field is lost. This Part 5 proved this part of my hypothesis wrong because I predicted there would still be attraction between the two sections of slime, but when I performed the experiment I observed there being no attraction.
Conclusion
My experiment left me with many concluding thoughts to think about. The purpose of my experiment was to find out if magnets work through the objects slime and wood and now I’ve learned that magnetism does work through slime in the right conditions and through wood too. This experiment proved four out of five parts of my hypothesis right, and one part of my hypothesis wrong. Magnets can work through slime, but only one layer of it, not too much, and they can also work through wood. So I’ve learned that magnets are impressive, but not unstoppable. They can work through slime and wood, but only when there is one or the other, not both. In order to further investigate this problem, next time I would try out different substances to try to find out which substances magnets don’t work through at all. It was interesting observing the magnetism working through the objects I chose, so I think more experimentation of other unique objects would be good to test too.
How …show more content…
Magnetism Works Through Certain Substances
One scientific principle that has always interested me, from back when I was a young child until now, is magnetism. The fact that an invisible force brings two objects together is interesting, but I think it would be even more interesting to test the limits and boundaries of this scientific concept. Since we already know about the basics of magnets, I wanted to push myself farther. I wanted to combine a scientific concept that we’ve already known about for years from learning it from school with something many of us like to learn about for fun outside of school.
Many of my schoolmates and I love to make slime. Slime is one of America’s crazes right now (Kruvant, 2016). When I first made homemade slime it was so fun, but I became even more curious so I added magnets, and that’s how my science fair project was born. I thought it would be a great science fair project to investigate what happens when objects interfere with the magnetic field. I wanted to do this experiment because I wanted to find out if I place magnets inside homemade slime, would the magnets still be attracted to a magnet outside of the slime? I also wanted to know if placing an object between the magnetic slime and the outside magnet would block the magnetic field.
This project will help my classmates and I learn more about magnetism and what affects magnetic attraction and the power of magnetic fields. I thought that putting together fun slime with the science of magnets would be a good way to be entertaining and educational at the same time.
History of Magnets
Magnets are not new to the world because they have a long history. The word magnet comes from the Greeks because it translates as “stone from Magnesia” (Woodford, 2016). Magnesia was a place in Greece where natural magnetic rocks were first found (VanBrackle, n.d.). One of the ideas of how magnets were discovered was that 4,000 years ago a shepherd called Magnets in Northern Greece was standing on a rock and felt the nails in his shoes and his metal stick getting stuck to the rock (Woodford, 2016). The world didn’t know about magnets before this! This rock today is called magnetite or lodestone. When people first found out about magnets they thought they were almost magical because they were so foreign to them and they didn’t understand why they acted like they did. (Philpott, Kalita, para. 3). Some people even thought they could cure sick people and some people thought they could get rid of evil in their lives. People even started using them to help them with navigating (Philpott, Kalita, para. 3).
In the year 1600, a famous scientist called William Gilbert discovered that Earth is a large magnet (Woodford, 2016). He is famous for telling the world that the earth is a magnet with the north magnetic pole in Canada and the south magnetic pole in Antarctica. He is also famous for finding out that you can change the magnetic forces and how strong they are by the temperature of them, by either heating or cooling them. Chinese scientists were aware that magnetite was in the world too and they asked themselves why in needle form would it always face north-south direction in water? That’s how the first magnetic compass was created (Woodford, 2016).
Scientific Principles of the Project
I am exploring how magnetic fields work. What things can the magnetic force work through? Is slime one of the things that the invisible force of magnets can work through? Can the magnets work through the slime and with another thick object between them? I’m testing the strength of magnets when different objects like slime and wood get in the way.
First, I did some research on the scientific principles behind magnetic fields. Through my research, I learned that if you cut a magnet it becomes two whole brand new magnets and that every magnet has two poles, north and south poles. The north pole of one magnet is not attracted to the north pole of the other magnet. The north pole of one is attracted to the south pole of the other. As they say, opposites attract! Some magnets come together like glue because they are attracted to each other but some magnets push other magnets away (Woodford, 2016).
I’m using a bigger magnet outside of the slime to see if the magnetic slime will be attracted to it still or if having the magnets stuck in the slime stops the magnets from working. Or will the wood break the field? Do they just make the magnetic force weaker or does it stay just as strong? Or maybe the magnetic forces are stopped completely. I made the homemade slime and put magnets inside them. I chose slime because it’s a unique material and made me the most curious. I think people in my class are curious about slime too. I created an experiment to see how strong the magnetic field is with different things as obstacles between the magnets.
Why This Project is Important
My experiment is important to do because the whole earth is a magnet, so middle-schoolers should understand how magnets work in all different situations because it is all around us and relevant every day. I set up many different parts to see how the magnetic fields react in different situations.
Method
My experiment has five parts. The first part is that I’m going to see if the magnets in the slime even work when a regular bigger magnet is put on top of the slime. The second part is to see if the magnetic field is strong enough to hold through a thick piece of wood when magnetic slime is on one side and a regular magnet is on the other side of the wood. The third part is I’m going to test magnetic slime on both sides of the wood to see if the magnetic forces work in this situation when the magnets are even weaker in the slime. The fourth part is seeing how the magnets react when I put a regular magnet on either side of the piece of wood, with no slime involved anywhere. The fifth part is seeing if two sections of magnetic slime separated from each other on the table without any wood between them become attracted to each other.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that if magnets are placed both inside the slime and outside the slime, then the magnetism between the two groups of magnets will still hold. If both slime and wood are between the magnets then the magnetic field will be broken. I hypothesize that if just the wood is in between regular magnets then the magnetism will be the strongest. Lastly, I hypothesize that if two sections of magnetic slime are placed next to each other, with no wood between, then there will still be magnetic attraction. I’m excited to see my results!
Performing the Experiment
Next, I began the testing process. The independent variables were the substances coming in between the magnets. The dependent variable is the level of magnetism between the magnets; weak, medium, or strong. In Part 1, I observed there was a strong magnetic attraction between the horseshoe magnet and the magnets within the slime. In Part 2, I observed there was no magnetic attraction when the horseshoe magnet was to the left of the wood and the magnetic slime was to the right of the wood. In Part 3, I observed there was no attraction between the magnets in the slime to the left of the wood to the magnets in the slime to the right side of the wood. In Part 4, I observed that the attraction between the horseshoe magnet and the regular small magnet is so strong even through the piece of wood that I was able to use the horseshoe magnet to control the movement of the smaller magnet, even through the wood! In Part 5, there was very light attraction between the two sections of magnetic slime, but only when the two slimes touched each other, but no attraction at all when the two slimes were 1/2 inch from each other.
Analysis of Results
Here is my analysis of all my observations. In Part 1 of the experiment, it showed me that magnetism does still work through the substance of slime, which proves my hypothesis correct. I predicted that the magnetic field between two magnets would hold even with the obstacle of slime. Part 2 also went along with my hypothesis, but in a different way. It showed me that the magnetic field is broken when slime and wood are both put in between the magnets. This is what I predicted, so I’m happy the results proved my hypothesis right again. Part 3 showed that the magnetic fields couldn’t hold up when two sections of slime and the piece of wood were placed in between the magnets, which is not surprising because the magnetism could not even hold in part 2, which only had one layer of slime in between the magnets. I’m not surprised by these results because magnetism would have to be so strong if it could work through three layers of dense substances. Part 4 was the most interesting part of my experiment.
It showed me that magnetism does work strongly through the substance of wood. It showed me that wood was less of an obstacle for the magnet than the slime was. The small magnet followed where the horseshoe went, so I was able to drag the small magnet around by moving the horseshoe magnet. This part of the experiment reminded me of why many people hundreds of years ago thought of magnets as magical and mystical things, like a secret power of wizardry because of things like this. This shows the power of magnetic fields. Finally, in Part 5, my very last part, it showed me that there is only magnetic attraction through slime when there is one layer of slime between two magnets, but when there are two layers of slime between them, the magnetic field is lost. This Part 5 proved this part of my hypothesis wrong because I predicted there would still be attraction between the two sections of slime, but when I performed the experiment I observed there being no attraction.
Conclusion
My experiment left me with many concluding thoughts to think about. The purpose of my experiment was to find out if magnets work through the objects slime and wood and now I’ve learned that magnetism does work through slime in the right conditions and through wood too. This experiment proved four out of five parts of my hypothesis right, and one part of my hypothesis wrong. Magnets can work through slime, but only one layer of it, not too much, and they can also work through wood. So I’ve learned that magnets are impressive, but not unstoppable. They can work through slime and wood, but only when there is one or the other, not both. In order to further investigate this problem, next time I would try out different substances to try to find out which substances magnets don’t work through at all. It was interesting observing the magnetism working through the objects I chose, so I think more experimentation of other unique objects would be good to test too.