Teaching Minds-On Experiments on Electromagnetism in Secondary Schools Permanent magnets Chaotic magnetic pendulum
The
platform of this toy is divided into six areas describing six different
situations in a game of football: scoring a goal, a penalty kick, a
corner, a foul, a throw-in and off-side. There is a magnet hidden under
each area and there is also one in the ball. The bottom pole of the
ball and the top poles of the platform are of the same sign. The ball
avoids stopping above any of the areas.
The movements of the ball over the magnets is absolutely chaotic.
Sometimes you get the impression that the ball is going to stop above
one of the areas, and that it is suddenly attracted to another area.
Theoretically, it cannot be foreseen where the ball is going to stop.
Even a small change of the initial ball position leads to a different
result, which is a characteristic feature of the chaotic movement.
A different version of the magnetic pendulum. The movement of it
depends on many factors, like the friction (it can be enhanced if the
pendulum is submerged in a liquid), the gravity force (which changes
the relative direction if the vertical positioning of the pendulum
changes), the attracting or repelling force of magnets (different
magnets have slightly different strengths and configurations so they
never act with exactly the same force).