Article October 27, 2008 Issue

LESSONS FROM A MAGNET, PINS, AND A GOLD RING

BY FENELLA BENNETTS

HERE'S AN EXPERIMENT worth trying: Take a thin card, a few safety pins, and a magnet.

Put the pins on top of the card, and move the magnet near them. As soon as one pin sticks to the magnet, it will magnetize the others until they make a chain of pins. Next, put a gold ring on the card with the pins. The magnet won't have the slightest effect on the ring, and the pins next to the ring won't be affected either.

There's no great secret about this. Pins contain iron, and iron is magnetic. Gold, on the other hand, is a pure metal and has no magnetic properties. Still, this graphic experiment shows the pull and push of magnetism on a substance that is susceptible to it.