Monday, October 15, 2012

Making Rocks into Magnets


Lodestone is the most magnetic and common type of natural magnet.
Credit: Wikimedia/Ryan Somma

11 comments:

Nicholas said...

That was a really interesting article. Also a very confusing article. I didn't comprehend it the first time. But from the beginning I was thinking, "Magnetic rocks. That's impossible." As I read on, I totally got it. The article said lodestones were very magnetic. I was surprised and disappointed when they didn't state more examples. Charles Aubourg and his team from the University of Pau conducted an experiment on that. They heated sedimentary rocks to a certain degree, and raised it each period. The magnetic field increased every time. I thought it was fascinating that it increased more at the beginning, but I began to think to myself that they didn't raise it the same amount each time, and the last two periods, they put it in only ten days rather than 25. You could say it might be too hot, or something like that, but it still might have ruined the experiment. They might have gotten completely different results by raising it the same number each time, and heating at a certain temperature for the same time period. At the end, I really got fascinated. The experiment led them to believe that the magnetic force was tiny pieces of magnetite, less than 20 nanometers across, could make a huge rock magnetic. Overall, I thought this was a great article, but it could have been more specific in some areas.

Jonah said...

I agree with Nick. At first, I did not think that it is possible for there to be a magnetic rock. After reading this article, I now understand the topic. It is very interesting that heat can make something magnetic. The one thing that I related it to is what we learned last year about atoms. What we learned was that heat makes the electrons excited, so I was wondering if that has anything to do with it. Another thing that I did not understand is why did the magnetic field get bigger in the beginning and not in the end when the temperature is higher. I also thought that the thing about the grains being less than 20 nanometers long is also interesting. About that fact, are the grains the only cause of a magnetic field, or are there other components to this.

Adam said...

This article was very interesting. The article confused me in a couple of ways though. I did not understand how heating a rock could magnetize it and why it worked best with a lodestone. Then I read it again and and then I saw that the article explained that lodestones are already a bit magnetic. This was a very good article overall.

Josh said...

I have always been fascinated by magnets. I have tried making all metals magnets. I never thought of a rock as a magnet.

Jahan said...

I did not know that rocks could be magnets. I find it very fascinating that the magnets can be in a place where somebody could never guess.

Mila said...

I thought this article was very interesting because I never knew that rocks could become magnets just because of heat and the right stone. I mean you never know what rock could be what. I might try this at home because lodestone could be local in any neighborhood. I believe that this article was very interesting because of al the details and I thought it was great how they explained how this is possible. All in all i thought this article was ver cool and it taught me a bunch of knew things about rocks that I didn't know, or that I thought weren't possible.

Eva said...

I think that this idea is really interesting, and sort of exciting. By heating up certain types of rock and finding them, you can create a magnetic force strong enough to use as a magnet. This is an advancement in science and probably important for numerous experiments that could be done in the future. If taught, anybody could make their own magnets. This would save money, such as using magnetic letters on refrigerators or on dishwashers. You could carve a rock and use that instead!

Mila said...

I thought this article was very interesting because I never knew that rocks could become magnets just because of heat and the right stone. I mean you never know what rock could be what. I might try this at home because lodestone could be local in any neighborhood. I believe that this article was very interesting because of al the details and I thought it was great how they explained how this is possible. All in all i thought this article was ver cool and it taught me a bunch of knew things about rocks that I didn't know, or that I thought weren't possible.

Kallie said...

I think that was a really interesting article. I think it is particularly interesting that natural magnets were found long before other magnets we have today were invented. Also, it was interesting that if you specifically heated up the right rock at the right temperature for the right amount of time, you could get a magnet like the one in the picture.

Andrew said...

I thought that this was a great article because I thought it was fascinating that if you eat rocks up they can become magnets. I thought it was great how the scientists did the experiment on the heat of the rock for a period of days.

Finn said...

I didn't get how the scientists got pressure on the rocks to make them magnetic because they said it needed pressure to become magnetic so I think they needed more detail on how they made the rocks magnetic