| MadSci Network: Physics |
Barb- A magnet is has to be made at least partly from one of three metals - iron, cobalt, or nickel. No other metals can be magnetic on their own. If you were to look at any of these metals under a powerful microscope you'd see that they are made out of lots and lots of very tiny crystals. These crystals are made of atoms that all line up in a regular order, and because of the way the atoms are lined up, each crystal acts like a tiny magnet. A magnet is strongest if all the tiny magnets formed by the crystals in it all line up with each other in the same way. When this happens, the little magnets all add together to make a strong big magnet. If any of the little magnets inside don't line up right, then their strength is taken away from the total, and the magnet is weaker. A small magnet can be stronger than a big magnet if more of the tiny magnet crystals inside it line up with each other.
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