Floating Magnets | English

Magnets are fascinating objects that we all love to play with! In this video you will learn some interesting properties of magnets and learn some physics concepts about them

To understand this, take a wooden base with an aluminum rod at its center. Firstly, place one ring magnet around the rod. Now place another magnet over the first such that both repel each other. In this case, you will see that second magnet is floating over the first magnet. Here two forces are acting on the floating magnet. First is gravity which is pulling the magnet in downward direction and second is the repulsive force between the magnets. As, both the forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction so the net force is zero due to which magnet remains floating in air.

If we take another magnet whose magnetism is negated (by heating in a furnace, hammering or due to exposure to non-uniform magnetic field) then both the sides will show attraction due to ferromagnetic nature of magnetic material.

Now place the third magnet over the second magnet in repulsive mode. You will observe that distance between first and second magnet is reduced due to more repulsive force from upside. When we lift up the topmost magnet from the rod the middle magnet will move upward increasing the gap between first and second magnet as the repulsive force in downwards direction is decreased.

Try this activity with more magnets and have explore the various forces that act on floating magnets. For more such hands on activities please visit our You Tube channel: IISER Pune Science Activity Centre. Have Fun!

Production team: Ashok Rupner, Chaitanya Mungi, Neha Apte, Prof. B. D. Chakradeo, Shraddha Bhurkunde, Mukund Mehendale
Camera: Vivek Kannadi, Kanchan Sharma
Music: Dr. Manasi Kulkarni