Pushing Without Touching
- Physics
- Ages 8–11 · Grades 3–5
- Hands-on experiment
What you’ll find out
- Magnets have two ends, and like ends repel while unlike ends attract.
- A magnetic force acts through gaps and through many materials.
- Magnets attract some metals and not others.
No sign-up and no real names. In the lesson you check your understanding as you read, run the experiment yourself, and practise until it sticks.
Two ends, and which way round matters
Every magnet has two ends, called the north pole and the south pole. Hold the north end of one magnet near the south end of another and they pull together, sometimes hard enough to snap. Now turn one of them round so that north faces north, and they push apart instead. If you press them together you can feel the push, like a soft invisible spring between your hands. Different ends attract; the same ends repel. That rule never changes.
It works through things
Here is the strange part. A magnet does not have to touch something to pull it. Lay a paperclip on a sheet of card and hold a magnet underneath. Move the magnet about and the clip follows it across the top, without anything ever touching it. Card does not block the force, and neither does paper, wood, glass or your own hand. Most of the forces you meet need contact — a push needs a hand, friction needs two surfaces — but this one reaches straight through. It is why a fridge magnet can hold a sheet of paper against the door.
Curriculum links: NGSS 3-PS2-3 · NGSS 3-PS2-4