Magnets and Water and Compasses, Oh My!

Posted on | March 7, 2010 | No Comments

I should have blogged about this much earlier.

At the beginning of the week, the boys worked on making their own compasses using dressmakers’ pins, magnets, pieces of foamie stickers and bowls of water.

They learned how to make a magnet by taking the pins and rubbing them a another magnet a few times but rubbing in one direction only. Afterwards, test to see if it’s actually magnetized. If not, repeat, but make sure your strokes go in one direction only.

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Then you attach it to a piece of foam. You can tape it on since that’s much easier than trying to pierce the piece of foam.

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Put it in a bowl of water…

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…and wait for it to stop moving.

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The head of the pin points north!

Sometimes you can fool someone (*cough*mom*cough*) by putting a strong magnet on the outside of the bowl and making it spin in a different direction!

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Psa 135:5-7 For I know that the LORD [is] great, And our Lord [is] above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries.

Category: Homeschool
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