Magnets and Electromagnets

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Introduction

Magnets have existed for hundreds of thousands of years and have been used by many different cultures throughout this time. Magnets have been useful throughout the years because they can hold two things together just through the force of the metal in the magnet. With the world’s constantly changing technology, electromagnets have been evolved from magnets and are more useful than a regular magnet but in order for an electromagnet to work, an electric current needs to be present (http://saxonhomeschool.hmhco.com/ha/Resources/saxonhomeschool/Holt_ST_PhysSci_Samp.pdf). The following questions that need to be addressed when learning about magnets and electromagnets are:

1. What is a magnet?

2. What is the cause of magnetism?

2. What are the different kinds of magnets?

3. How are magnets beneficial?

4. What is an electromagnet?

5. How are electromagnets used today?

What is a magnet?

A magnet, defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is classified as “a piece of iron (or an ore, alloy, or other material) that has its component atoms so ordered that the material exhibits properties of magnetism, such as attracting other iron-containing objects or aligning itself in an external magnetic field” (insert citation for google). This definition is saying that a magnet contains a magnetic field and it can attract other objects with like properties of that magnet so that they match up with one another creating a constant hold. Magnets were discovered over 2,000 years ago when the Greeks found a mineral that joined with like objects made of iron. This mineral was discovered in a city called Magnesia, so the Greeks named it magnetite (insert saxon citation).

What is the cause of magnetism?

“Some magnets can pic...

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...sources/HighSchool/Magnetism/magneticdomain.htm>.

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11. Sandner, Lionel. What Is Electromagnetism? New York: Crabtree Pub., 2012. Print.

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13. Sumalla, Albert. Super-Charged Science Projects: Magnets and Electric Current. New York: Barron's, 1994. Print.

14. "Uses of Electromagnets." Universe Today RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .

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