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How Magnets Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Josh Clark with guess who tell him tell him home
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: with Chuck Chuck. I'm with Chuck and Jerry's in the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: room as well, And since the three of us are
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: together in this room, we have that's right, the podcast. Um.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I am so excited about this podcast. I knew you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: would be, so much so that I'm worried about it because,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: as you know, in anybody who even like occasionally listens
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to the Stuff you should Know is aware of the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: more excited I get about a topic, the poorer job
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I do at explaining it. Yeah, so you already did it.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I should have said, the poorer the job I do. Yeah,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it's true. So I'm just gonna try to remain calm
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: because all we're talking about magna. It's after all, you know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And that's the way I feel. We usually balance each
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: other up nicely like that. But you don't think that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: there is some a certain cash to walking around understanding
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: how a magnet works? Do you realize what percentage of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the population you're a member of for knowing that maybe maybe,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and this is a guess like point zero zero to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: nine percent of the human populations how magnets work. I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: don't know anybody else until we selected this and started
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: reading it besides Tracy Wilson, who knew how magnets work.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I think you are underestimating the curiosity of the general
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: public for people to look up this stuff on their own.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: All right, Um, I would like to hear from people
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: if you already knew how magnets act. Like if we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: don't tell people this and they're just dumb dummies walking up,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think that. That's not at all what I think.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But I will get corrections on this, and I think
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that will prove that people know this and more. If
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you're if you're a is a cyst whose specialty is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the electro magnetic crack in their knuckles right now and listening,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: then yes, we're gonna mess things up, it's true. But
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: we have a general, good, well i'd say, fairly detailed
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: idea of why magnets exist. That's right, and we're gonna
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: explain that to everybody. But nic not in any way,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: shape or form in a condescending manner. No, no, no, no,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: because all we did was research and it's right. It's
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: not like we're making magnets here. No, we're just talking
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: about them. You know, they discovered these in Magnesia in Greece.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Did you know that what magnets like natural magnets? Yeah,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: like loadstone in Magnesia increase. Is that really a place Magnesia? Absolutely,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: you're not pulling my leg Nope, okay, but it was loadstone,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a type of magnetite. It was magnetite because that's the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: strongest naturally occurring magnet, right, Like you can attract a
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: paper clip just with this rock. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: It is even cooler, though, are the ones that humans
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: have conquered and mastered and own. That's right, because all
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the magnets you come in contact with on a daily basis,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: maybe a weekly basis, um have been manipulated by humanity.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I never come into contact with magnets. You know something,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: It's hard to find a decent magnet these days in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: an average store, Like you have to like mail off
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: for him. Yeah, And I don't have a refrigerator magnets
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: because you know, the stainless steel uh fridges, you can't
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: put a magnet on them. That's so weird. You can
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: put on the side. So we have a few. You know,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you get magnets over the court of your life, whether
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it's like the pizza delivery guy has, like we have
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: one in the shape of a pizza slice with their
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: number on it, you do, and that's on the side,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and like our vet, like we have a vet magnet
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: in this shape of a pizza slice the number and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: then like you know, random random people have given me
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: magnets here and there, which I'll throw up there on
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the side. That's good. Those are nice me mentos. You
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: mean you did, Yeah, that's nice. That's great. So anyway,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of magnets or experience with magnets,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: but I understand them now now that you say that,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I realized that I have more experience than I realized
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: with magnets, because we really you mean, I do have
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a pretty good magnet collection fridge um. But yeah, it is.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: It always struck me as weird that like stainless steel
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you couldn't put a magnet on that. I understand
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: why stainless steel is not a fairest metal. That's right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: You have to have a fairest metal, like something to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: say iron nickel, cobalt aluminum. Even really, I think so
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: because there's a type of male magnet called the Alnico magnet,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and that's aluminum, nickel, cobalt alloy. Yeah, that have If
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you've got a really good guitar amp, you might have
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: an Alnico seker. Yeah, they're they're pricing. Oh yeah. I
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: can imagine like you can buy the speaker separately and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: like switch it out in your amp to make your
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: amp some better, which I have been meaning to do
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for years. But they're just kind of pricing. It's like
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: foucks just for the speaker. But how's this sound? Well,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I'm told it's great. But music guys here much more
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: than I do, like real real music guys. They're like,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: can't you have the difference. Then I'll be like, yeah, sort,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: are these music guys also al Nico speaker salesman? Yeah? Probably?
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So all right, So let's get so this is what
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I like about this article. It goes like basic, too specific,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and you can start with the basics about magnets. They
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: attract specific metals, as we said, typically fairest metals. Uh.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: They have a north and south pole. All magnets do.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: There's no north and east polled magnet, and the Earth
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: is the biggest magnet of all. I guess it is,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: at least on Earth. Opposite poles attract one another like
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: poles repel one another. They hate each other. That's right.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Magnetic and electrical fields are related. And we're going to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: explain why I'm so excited. And magnetism I think I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: said electro magnetism earlier, so you can put your email
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: away because I'm correcting myself. Is one of the four
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: fundamental forces of the universe. Right, that's right, with gravity
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and the strong and weak nuclear forces. That's right. That's magnets.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: That's a great intro um magnets the object itself or
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: a magnet is an object in itself, Uh, that produces
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: a magnetic field, and it's gonna attract like you said,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: ferrous metals, and uh. There can be permanent magnets um
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a k A. Hard magnets and they always have a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: magnetic field going. And then you have the temporary magnets
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a k A. Soft magnets, and they just produce a
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: magnetic field when they're in the presence of h or
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: when they're in the presence of a magnetic field, and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: only for a short time and then for a little
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bit thereafter, like once it's gone once yeah, and then electromagnets.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: When you apply an electrical current to some magnets, they
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: become magnetic. That's right. And if you have a doorbell,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you probably have an electromagnet in your house. Yeah, the doorbell,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I looked it up. It's it's more complicated than you
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: would think. It's it's like a contract. It's like a
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Rube Goldbergesque contraption that that is apparently pretty standard uses electromagnets.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: It's the Actually, if you're interested in that, there's an
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: article how doorbells work on how Stuff Works dot com. Yeah,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: isn't it weird that the door or maybe it's just
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: me as a missing throw, but like the sound of
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a doorbell, now it's not like, oh, I wonder who's here?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It's a crap who's here? Right? Because no one just
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: drops by anymore? Right? Either that or like they know yeah, yeah,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: so chuck um. The magnets that you typically have, like
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: your pizza pizza boy magnet um or like the circle
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: ones that are probably the best example, just a ring,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: that magnetic ring that you see, yeah, and grew up
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: with those are a specific type and they're called um
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: ceramic magnets, and they're probably the weakest magnets commercially available,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: except for the pizza slice ones, right, because that's almost
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: like a sticker. Yeah, I mean it's connected to or
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it's got a you know, a topper on it with
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: printing topper. That's that's there's the topper, the pizza slice toper.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: But with the ceramic magnet, it's um. It's magnetic material
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: mixed with ceramics and it kind of cuts it um
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and it makes it a little weak, Yeah, but good
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: enough to stick on the fridge, which is all you're
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: looking for. And it's cheap, very cheap. You already mentioned
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the Alnico magnets, which are more expensive and like you said, aluminum, nickel,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and cobalt, and they are stronger than ceramic obviously, but
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: not as strong as the ones we're about to talk about,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: like uh neodymium magnets or sammari um samarium. You gotta
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: be kidding, Samariam, Okay, Samariam. Both of those magnets incorporate
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: rare earth metals which are extremely magnetic or when combining
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: an alloy, can be very magnetic It's true. And now
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: they even have uh and this is something I never knew.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: They have a plastic magnets called magnetic polymers uh. And
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I guess those are pret used in just very certain
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: applications like cold cold temperature applications, or maybe that's what's
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on your pizza slice magnet or it says they pick
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: up very only very lightweight things like iron fillings. So
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that's what you use with like your uh.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: You remember the little little toy kids thing where you
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: could had a guy's face and I had the little
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: iron fillings and you can move it around and make
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a beard or a mustache or whatever. I bet that's
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: what that is. What was that call? I don't know,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: old timey toy number two seventy three a sketch, not
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a hugo, something like that. And why was it that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: anybody who had a beard. From the nineteen forties to
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, any child's toy was like the most
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: disturbing looking creature you could come up with. You think, oh, yeah,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: have you ever heard of rushed in dolls? They had
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: They were this very successful toy company and they came
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: out with a line of hobo dolls that were like
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the scariest things you've ever seen in your life, like
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: they were meant to damage children. Obviously, we'll keep them
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: from hopping trains probably, I guess, you know, yeah, play
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: with it at home on the road, Yeah, if you
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: hop trains. Interesting. Uh, let's see. Oh, I made a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: blog post actually called twenty seven and the most unintentionally
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: terrifying dolls you've ever seen or ever created. It's like
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: almost every doll in my opinion. You should see the slides.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It's pretty good. I'll check it up. Okay, So let's
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: talk about making magnets chuckers. All right, Well you talked
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: about load stone, uh, form of magnetite, and that is,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you know, the natural strongest natural magnet You don't have
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to do anything to it. Um. So, I guess the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: discovery of loadstone and the fact that it attractive metals
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: made people start to tinker around with it. And um,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I guess around the twelfth century people figured out that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: if you took a little iron pin and he took
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: some loadstone, and you petted it in the same direction,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: preferably in a north northern direction, like you, you could
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: magnetize that iron filling and if you suspended it in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: something like water in a leaf. For anyone who's seen
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that movie with Alec Baldwin and um Anthony Hopkins, the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: edge they magnetize like a needle and put it in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like a water filled leaf and it they figure out
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: which way is north through. I knew had seen that before.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So that's uh, that's basically magnetizing a pin using loadstone.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: That's how the earliest compasses were made. Very cool. So
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: what's going on here, and this is sort of the basis,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and we'll break it down to, like you said, a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: more molecular level. But what's going on here is something
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: own as a region called a magnetic domain, and it
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: is actually part of the physical structure of any uh,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ferromagnetic material. So we're talking again iron, cobalt, and nickel largely,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and each one is like its own tiny little magnet
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: right there. It's got its own little north pole, its
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: own little south pole, and um they if it's unmagnetized,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: then this stuff is just gonna be random and pointing
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in all different directions. Right. The domain has its own
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: north and south pole, but it's not necessarily aligned with
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the north and south pole. On Earth, right, they're just
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: kind of a skew. If it's magnetized, they're all pointing
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in the same direction, right, Yes, that's that's pretty much
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: all you have to do is figure out how to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: um get all of those magnetic domains to align in
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the same north south line, yeah, because if they're not,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: they're just canceling each other out exactly. So, um, the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: more domains that you have pointing in the same direction,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the more powerful magnet you have, UM, and the in
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: each of these little domains you can just kind of
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I almost see it as like a little pocket in
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the molecular makeup of this, like an iron. Um. The
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: north pole of one domain flows into the south pole
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: of the domain in front of it. If they're all
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: aligned and you add a bunch of these up, they
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: produce one large magnetic field for the magnet as a whole, right, Yeah,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: which explains why if you you know, if you do
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the old trick in elementary school, or you bring one
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: magnet close to the other one, it'll either repel it
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: or you know, snap it together like one larger magnet, right,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Because the force, this magnetic force is going into out
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: of the north pole of the magnet and into the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: south pole of the magnet in front of it. Very dirty,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it is right. Um. Or if you take the north
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: pole of one magnet north pole of another magnet and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: put them together, they were polling another because their magnetic
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: forces are flowing in opposite directions and pushing one another apart.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Which is kind of funny because this is how magnets work.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: But it bears such a striking resemblance like something they
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: would have come up with in the fifteenth century, like
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the force flowing out, this invisible force. It's witchery. And
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: this is why magnets won't be brought together. Like people
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: would come and drag us out of here and toss
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: us in a lake to see if we float that. Uh.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: So we could stop there and you would have a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: pretty good idea of things, but we won't know. We'll
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: continue on. Okay, we'll go a little a little more
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in detail. Huh. That's right. If you want to make
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a magnet, you have you have to get all these
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: magnetic domains flowing in the same direction, just like we
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. When you rub the needle on
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the magnet, uh, you expose it to this magnetic field
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and we're getting these suckers to align in the same
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: way and then boom. That is one way that you
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: can get a magnet, right, And there's different ways of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: doing this. Um you place it in a magnetic field
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: in the north south direction. You can hold it in
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: north south direction and hit it at the hammer. That's crazy.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It is a little crazy, like you're physically jarring these
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: domains into alignment. Yeah, okay, I'll point this way then um.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Or you can pass an electrical current through it. That's
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: kind of a cheap. And they think that this is
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: where um loadstone came from. Either it was when this
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: rock formed the magnetize formed um from a lava. It
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: was aligned with the north south pole of the Earth,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: so it became magnetized, or it was struck by lightning,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: so an electrical current paths through it. That'd be pretty cool,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: and it became magnetized as a result, And it seems
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: likely right, um, But today the most common method of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of making magnet is to place them in a very
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: strong magnetic field and by a boom, by a being,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: their domains start to to wind up. But yeah, there's
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: gonna be a little delay though. And I saw this
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: like on a on a YouTube video of this guy.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: There's a really good one. I can't remember what it
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: was called where the guy broke it down. Whateverage stuff
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. I always type kid science and then
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: then I look and see what videos are A yeah, yeah, no,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: it's it really helps out. Um. But there will be
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a delay called hysteresis or hysteresis, and uh that that's
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: basically just the time it takes for these for the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: field to change direction and I'll align itself right, Because
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: when you get these domains going, um, the ones that
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: aren't already lined up on a north south pole, Um,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: they just rotate around and do a little crazy spinning
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: until they land on it. And the ones that are
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: already aligned north south, Um, are they grow bigger, Yeah,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: become more robust, I guess yeah. And as a result
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: other ones, the walls between um, smaller domains will shrink,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and so you have large north south domains and then
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: even the smaller ones are now probably polarized along that
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: that north south line and you have just created a magnet. Yeah.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And here's what I think was one of the really
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: cooler aspects of this is how strong your magnet is
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: depends on how hard it was to get these domains
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to move in that direction, and the harder it is,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the longer it will stay magnetized, which sort of makes sense.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: It's almost like that it was so stubborn to get going,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: but then once you got it going in the right direction,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: it was then stubborn on doing it at that action right,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: which kind of makes you wonder like if over enough
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of a time span, well, any magnetized material eventually lose
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: its magnetism just left alone. Huh, that's a good question. Uh,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: you there are things you can do to de magnetized things.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: You could take a magnet and put it in a
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: magnetic field that's polarized the opposite direction. It's kind of mean. Yeah,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you can. You can boil it alive, which is also
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: very mean, and uh, heat it to the point where
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: it loses its magnetism. Yeah, the cury point. The guy
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in the video tested this. He had a paper clip
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: on a string tied to the table and then the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: magnet was like a foot off, so it was just
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: like doing and then he took a Jerry Lewis and
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: then he said, Dean, bring me a lighter, and uh,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: he got a lighter and heat it up the paper
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: clip and then you see it start to shake and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: then eventually it just poop fell. That is a weird story.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: He demagnetized it using the Curry point. Um. So, okay, again,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: we could stop here. I think everybody understands how magnets work, right, Like,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: there's little magnetic domains that are in all kinds of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: crazy directions, and then when you expose them to a
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: magnetic field, they line up together and they produced their
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: own magnetic field around that magnetic material, and then there
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you go. It flows out of the north and into
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the south. Magnets, right, I would like to see a survey.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I wish you could take an instant survey of people
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that you know, half of them are going go, go go,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and half of them are like, I'm good. Right, that's
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: all I need to know about magnets, right know. I
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: think our listeners are pretty curious folk. Okay, so we're
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: going deeper. And Tracy Wilson, m who are site manager
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: here of stuff you miss in history class? Now, she
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: wrote this one, and she's so thorough. She has a
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: very nice little pun in this section called shipping magnets
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: get it ah shipping magnets. Yeah, I got it now.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't notice that before. Yeah, it's a pun um.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: What she's talking about in this section though, was interesting
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in that very large magnets present a lot of problems
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: because they're super strong and you can't just throw it
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: on a truck. Uh, and you know, drive it across country.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You know, it'll disrupt everything. So very uh specific precautions
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: have to be taken when delivering large magnets used for
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: certain like industrial applications, one of which is they have
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: machines that because it will pick up all this fairest
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: material along the way, they have machines when they get
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: there to remove all that stuff. Yeah, and I mean
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: a manager if you're shipping it in like a truck,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and the truck is made of or has some sort
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of iron alloy in it, and you have a huge
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: industrial magnet, how are you going to get that off
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: of the truck? You're not exactly, So they magnetize these
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: materials on site typically, right, That's what I understand. Or
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: else they just rely almost exclusively on electro magnets, which
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: become magnetic when you pass the current through ather. You
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: can say manpower, right, American ingenuity. That's how you do it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: It stuck, sir, right, um, Well, speaking of sticking, we're
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: going to break it down to the electrons, which the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: atomic level. This is about to happen because that's really
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: where it all starts. Well, we're I was just saying,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: like electro magnets, they become magnetic when you pass the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: field of electricity through them, or current, And all electrical
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: current is is a flow of electrons. Movement of electrons
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: produces electricity, and electricity and magnetism are are very much related.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: And this is why because on the atomic level of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a ferrous material, iron, nickel, cobalt, right, because are the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: big ones. It's called the big three. Well, let's let's
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: talk specifically about iron in In an iron atom, there
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: are around it's its orbit. In its orbit, there are
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: electrons moving around the spin downward or or upward, and
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: typically they're paired. And when you have a pair of electrons,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: one spinning upward, one spinning downward, there's there never any
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: other way. There's no pair of electrons that both spin
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in the same direction. Is always opposite. Yeah, it's called
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the poly exclusion principles. Just not possible, right, exactly. Um,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: So in iron, you also have four unpaired electrons that
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: all spin the same way. Now, those ones that are
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: paired in spinning the opposite direction, they cancel one another out.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: But these four spinning the same way produce a magnetic field,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a very very very very very tiny magnetic field, but
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: a magnetic field. Then the last, right, and this is
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: very unusual for these unpaired electrons to be spinning in
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the same direction. That's why it only happens in things
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: like iron, cobalt, nickel, right exactly. That's what makes them
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: ferro magnetic materials. Yeah, potentially magnetic because they have these
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: unpaired electrons that are spinning in a certain direction. Right.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: And then because these things are spinning in the same direction,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: they attract other atoms to kind of line up that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: are spinning in the same direction, to line up nearby,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and then those create what domains well, what a moment
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: they have a moment? Oh yeah, I forgot the moment.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: It's called the orbital magnetic moment. And I get maybe
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: that's just when they realize, hey, we're all we're all
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: partying in the same way, we're all spinning downward, and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: we all like slacks. Yeah, and hey, we've got a
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: magnetic field all of a sudden, small, but let's get
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a bunch of other ones and let's create a larger one, right,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: And that moment is um. It's a It describes the force,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the I guess, the power and the direction of the spin. Yeah.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So yeah, when you have a bunch of them having
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the same moment, they kind of line up around one another.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: When this when iron forms, that's right, And then that
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: causes the domain or that creates the little magnetic domains
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and in the material that's right. Uh. And if you
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: notice that um materials that make good magnets are the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: same materials that magnets attract, then uh, it's because they
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: attract unpaired electrons that are spending in that direction. It's
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it's the same thing. And you can also have something
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: called die magnetic, which are unpaired electrons creating a field
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: that repels instead of attracts. And then some materials don't
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: react at all with magnetics, like pine straw. I think
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: now is the time for a word from our sponsor.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: All right, back to magnets, because there's still some more
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: to go. I mean, now everyone's listening to this understands
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: magnets on a an atomic level. It's the spin of electrons.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: It's physics. Yeah, my favorite thing. Yeah, this one actually
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: appealed to me more than usual phys physics one is here.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: You know, remember the physics is surfing I do. Alright,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: So people measure magnets to see, you know, how strong
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the magnetic field is using something called a goss meter,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and um, flux or Webber's are the um what would
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you call that? You measure? Okay, so flux is a
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: line of magnetic force coming out of it, but I botch,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: that's all right, Okay, So the density of the flux
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: is measured in either tesla or goss, with Tesla being
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: ten thousand goss, which is pretty cool that you get
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a unit of measurement named after you. If you're Tesla,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: you better if you're tesla stuff. Uh. And you can
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: also measure it in Webber's per square meter, but really
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: who wants to do that in Canada? Probably, And then
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the magnitude of the field is measured in Ampire's per
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: meter or something called or stead. Yeah. I like Courstead.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I'm a fan of Oorstead, and I also like flux
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and Testa's pretty awesome too. So where do we use
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: magnets besides pizza reminders or doorbell um word of course speakers,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: we use them too. If you were in the cassette
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: tapes back in the day, brother, you were into magnets. Yeah, um,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: we also used them again, encompasses, burglar alarms, electric motors.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: We use them to provide torque. Yeah, car spetometers. If
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: you have an old fashioned cathode rate tube television set,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: you're using magnets. Did you listen to cassettes? What sure? Man?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: It was I grew up in the eighties, Okay, I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: was just I wasn't quite sure. You know, you're a
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: little younger, but I didn't know. I was a late
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: adopter of cassettes, well know of everything, because what I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: would do is I would have a big collection and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: then be like, I got all these records. So I
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: was late to cassettes, and then I had all these cassettes.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to switch to CDs until all my
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: cassettes got stolen and I was like, all right, I
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: guess I'll get CDs now. Let IM going CDs. Yeah, yeah, No.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I was there for the big transition from cassettes to
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: c ds, remember, like they were across the board, twenty
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: dollars in the big box to waste. See look at
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that maglev trains. Yeah, we talked about this. We have
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: a cool one of our little one minute um live
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: action shorts online. We we uh and maybe I'll post
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: this when we release this. But the maglev train system
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and a lot of roller coasters and things like that
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: use super magnets. You don't remember that one. Yeah, the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: maglev train uses it to propel the train forward, and
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: roller coasters use magnets for breaking a lot of times,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: like new ones. Yeah, the good ones. You don't remember
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that one. No, we did like a dozen of them
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: in four days. I don't remember that one. I'll send
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: it to you, thank you. The magnetis sphere is a
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: part of our atmosphere. I guess it's outside of the atmosphere,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: but it surrounds Earth in a protective layer that protects
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: it from charged ions known as solar winds. And when
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: these solar winds come in contact with the magnetosphere, you
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: get something that's called the northern or southern lights. Ah,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that's what that is. I knew. We talked about that
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: at some point in another short that's right. Um. And
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: then our favorite, of course, the Wonder Machine, would not
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: be possible without magnets because it is magnetic resonance imaging, right,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you know, and just be resonance imaging without it. Yeah,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and there's no fun in that. Uh. And then doctor
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: sometimes use pulse electro magnetic fields to actually heal broken
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: bones that haven't heal correctly. It's amazing. I looked into this.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: They have no idea how it works on a molecular level.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: All they know is that if you expose bone or tissue.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I think bones more more bone and muscle maybe are
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: easier to grow to an electromagnetic pulse, it grows. Even
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: if it like it hasn't healed under after surgery or
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: any other procedure, if you hit it with an electromagnetic pulse,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: it'll you'll get a reaction. And they're figuring out how
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: to put this in garments for astronauts. Yeah, because you
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: have you you suffer substantial bone loss on a very
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: long microgravity flight. Um. So they're figuring out how to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: weave it into their clothes so their clothes can get
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: can blast them with an electromagnetic pulse to make sure
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: their bone density keeps up. That's pretty cool. But they
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: don't know why it works. They just know it works.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Cows are pretty happy they're magnets because there's this horrific
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: thing called traumatic you know, we'll just call it hardware disease.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: And this is when when cows eat small metal objects
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: that are in their food. And it's pretty awful that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: that happens. But luckily they have a cow magnet to
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: feed them, and I guess gathers up all this stuff
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and then they poop it out. Uh they I'll bet
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: that's horrible to poop out, isn't that what happens? Or
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: punctures the magnet? Yeah, the magnet out. I don't know it.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: He surely doesn't just stay in the body, does it.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know. All right, I'm gonna have to look
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: into that some more. And people are known to put
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: their arms into cows rears. Yeah, now we we that
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: some some of them have a hole cut in their side, remember,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: so they can examine their stomach. Yeah, the one with
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the poor hole. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. I'm going
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: to try this one. Traumatic reticulo pericarditis. You practice that beforehand?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Well done, so nothing wrong with that. Yeah, some people
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: might think practicing hard words before you do a professionally
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: released audio program a good thing. Um. If if a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: human swallows a magnet, that's not good. Yeah, you don't
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: want to do that. Cows intestines and stomachs are different
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: than humans. Intestines and stuff mix. And if we swallow,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: especially more than one magnet, they will basically clamp your
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: entrails together and you will be in big trouble and
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you'll have to undergo surgery to have them removed. So
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: that's no good. The parents be caution to when your
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: kids are playing with magnets because kids like the swallow things.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: You shouldn't swallow. Yeah. And since we talked about electromagnetic
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: pulses being um capable of spurring bone loss man spurning growth,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: thank you. Um. You would think that people wearing like
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: magnetic bracelets or magnetic insoles are getting some sort of benefit,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: there's no there's no study that's ever shown that there
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: those things actually help. Although there's a lot of people
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: out there who believe in static magnetic therapy, which is
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: just a magnet on your skin. There's no pulse or
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: anything going off, and they think that possibly the people
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: who are adherent to this, I think that it's either
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: attracting iron in the hemoglobin that kind of makes sense
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: to improve their sculation, or um, it has some sort
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: of effect on the cellular structure in the body. Uh,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and that that's why it helps your back. Insoles help
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: your back, or a bracelet helps your authorritis. Yeah. Um,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: but again there's no studies that suggest this. Well, it's
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: big money. Um. Americans alone spent about five million per
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: year on this kind of thing, um, and worldwide about
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: five billion dollars a year on magnetic treatment. So the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: b Yeah, that's a lot of dough. Uh. And then
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: there was one more thing. Magnetized drinking water is a
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: thing now to treat ailments. And I think that they
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: have not shown in clinical trials that that's been proven either.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Most of the minerals in drinking water are not pharo magnetic,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: so to begin with, we didn't have anything to do
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: with it. And they they found that UM in clinical trials,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of the positive benefits come from placebo maybe
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: or a passage of time, or maybe the fact that
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: these insult cushionings are just better made, more padded. To
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: begin with. There's also apparently um a device that removes
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: um hard water minerals from water using magnets, but apparently, again,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: it's not really doing anything as far as Consumer Report
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: says in a two year study. Yeah, we had a
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: water softener when I lived in Yuma. Yeah, and I've
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: never heard of that. I was like what, And it's like,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: you know, it's in the garage. Just sort of looked
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: like a hot water heater and it's soft in the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: water whatever that means. Yeah, do do you know what
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: it did? It's soften the water. But I think I
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: remember asking my sister what hard water did and she
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, you could tell the difference, Like I
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: can't remember your skin real dry, I think, And I think, yeah,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I don't remember. So that's hard water everyone. If you
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: want to learn more about that, type the word magnets
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: into the search bar at how stuff works dot com.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: It will bring up this awesome and exhaustive article. Also,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: if you're interested in doorbells, type that word in the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: search part you And since I said search part twice,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: it means we go straight to listener mail. Yeah, I'm
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: gonna call this military shout out. We don't do shoutouts
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: that often sometimes we do. We get a lot of requests.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I don't feel bad people if we don't do your
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: shout out. Um, this is from Trevor. Hey, guys, my
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: name is Trevor, and yes that it's spelled with to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: be and not a V. And that is a long
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: story that I'll tell you you would like, but that's
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: not why i'm writing in. I'm currently serving in the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: US arm Forces and I am in stationed overseas. My
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: wife and I recently welcome my daughter into the world.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Congratulations Trevor and wife, and I got to spend some
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: time with them, although not as much as I would
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: like to obviously, before I had to come back overseas.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: It's been a really long tough trip being away from them,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and even harder on our marriage. I work long hours
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and when I come home to talk to my wife,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I really dread talking about work, and she really hates
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: talking about herself all the time. So that's when I
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: bring up topics that you guys talk about on the show.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I've listened for years and I have turned her onto
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: them as well. And I just want to thank you
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: guys and ask if you could give a shout out
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: to her and listener mail. Her name is Tony with
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: an eye. So Trevor and Tony, Trevor, thanks for your
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: service obviously, and both of you thanks for hanging in there.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: As a military couple. It's stuff when you're away for
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that long and uh, it's quite a sacrifice. My sister
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and her husband. He's a career marine helicopter pilot as
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I mentioned before. Yeah, he's been to Afghanistan, right, Yeah,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and they go for you know, long tour six and
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: eight months at a time, and you do enough of
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: those in your life and you realize you're spending years
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: away from your husband or wife totaled up and family
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: and the daughters and sons, and so it's tough stuff.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: So shouting out to you guys hanging there. Yeah, thanks
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Trevor and Tony. Um, that's pretty awesome that we're like
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: keeping their marriage happy. Well, we're providing their sustenance to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: talk about. It's awesome exactly. H If you want to
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: let us know how we have helped your marriage, we're
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: very interested in that. You can also try us on
• 35:04
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• 35:07
  Speaker 1: but it's worth a shot. If you really think so. Um.
• 35:10
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• 35:13
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• 35:15
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• 35:17
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• 35:19
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• 35:30
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• 35:32
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• 35:42
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