Experiment 3 — The Magnet Test

Topic: Physics · Classes 4–5 · Magnetic and non-magnetic materials

Aim: Lift the steel pin through a sheet of paper, without the magnet touching the pin.

Daily: Magnets hold your fridge door shut, stick notes to it, and sit inside every speaker and earphone you own. At scrapyards, huge electromagnets lift iron out of mixed waste — the same sorting you are about to do.

Question: Which of these will a magnet attract?

Exp: Only iron, steel, nickel and cobalt are magnetic. Aluminium and copper are metals, but not magnetic.

Question: A magnet does NOT attract…

Exp: Copper is a metal but not magnetic.

Question: Double the distance between magnet and pin and the pull becomes…

Exp: Magnetic force falls off quickly with distance.

Question: Magnetism can pass through…

Exp: That is how fridge magnets hold notes.

Question: Why does an iron sheet block the pull?

Exp: The sheet concentrates the field, shielding what is behind it.