Magnetic Maze
Use a magnet to guide objects through a maze drawn on the side of a plastic bottle.
Use a magnet to guide objects through a maze drawn on the side of a plastic bottle.
What will I need?
1.
Gather your supplies using the list above.
2.
Draw a maze onto the bottle with a marker pen.
3.
Drop the coin or ball bearing inside the bottle and use a magnet to guide it through the maze.
4.
Try doing the same with your other objects. Which ones work, and why?
5.
Try some different maze patterns too.
- What happens when you hold the magnet near the coin or ball bearing?
- Why doesn’t the bottle stick to the magnet?
- Does this work with all coins?
- Try some other things inside your bottle maze, such as a button, marble or hair clip. Which materials stick to the magnet?
A magnet is anything that has a magnetic field around it. In this activity, the magnet’s field temporarily makes the coin into another magnet. The two magnets attract, and the coin is pulled towards the magnet. Only certain materials are affected by magnetic fields in this way; by far the most affected is iron.
Many modern coins are made of steel (an alloy made mostly of iron) coated with a thin layer of either copper or nickel. Twenty-pence coins are made of an alloy of copper and nickel, and will not work in this activity.
Whether it’s keeping your bag closed or sticking photos on your fridge, magnets have many uses in everyday life. They are in loudspeakers, headphones and electric motors.
Among the many everyday applications of magnets are fridge decorations that cling to (steel) fridge doors, and the magnetic strip on the inside of a fridge door that keeps the door closed. Electromagnets are coils of wire wound around an iron core. When current flows through the coil, it produces a magnetic field, which magnetises the iron. Electromagnets are found in electric motors, cranes in scrapyards and in loudspeakers and headphones.
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