Re: Is Snow or Ice Magnetic ?

Water is diamagnetic in both its liquid and solid phases. This means that it is very weakly repelled by a magnet. In order to see the effect you need a fairly strong magnet - generally what's called a "rare earth" magnet. Two examples would be samarium-cobalt (SmCo) and neodymium iron boron (NIB). Your science teacher might have one or the other for use in the classroom. They can be rather expensive.

I found a couple of examples on the Web of demonstrations you can do. The Exploratorium has a very nice page discussing diamagnetism and a demostration of Pushing Grapes with a magnet.

There's also a personal site by a guy, Bill Beaty, who appears to be a science hobbyist . He suggests a couple experiments, one of which involves pushing around a long, thin piece of ice (like an icicle) suspended on a thread with a magnet. He has some suggestions for where to buy NIB magnets. Be cautious of any personal Web site trying to sell you something, but it looks to me to be on the level, and has some links to other magnet-related experiment sites.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your demo.

Jay

[Moderator note: Extreme diamagnetism:
Airborne Amphibian]