Re: Newton's Cradle

[Tony Wayne <wayne@PEN.K12.VA.US>]

Find a good power drill that plugs into a wall (not battery powered) or a
high wattage  (75 W) soldering iron (not battery powered). Plug it in to the
wall outlet and turn it on high. (A hand held Tesla coil might also work.)
The transformer inside the drill/iron will create a strong  alternating
magnetic field. Slowly bring the handle close to the cradle. Slowly swirl it
around like it is a magic wand for a 5 or 10 seconds. Then slowly move it
away from the cradle. Turn it off. This also works great for demagnetizing
color television screens after someone has placed a magnet on the screen.
-Tony

PS For another neat trick, hold a large neodymium magnet
   in your hand and bring is close to the drill's handle
   while it is on. The magnet will vibrate.

==========================================================
Tony Wayne                    Those that can, do.
wayne@pen.k12.va.us           Those that understand, teach.


> From: Glenn Malin <GMalin@IUSD.ORG>
> Reply-To: "phys-l@lists.nau.edu: Forum for Physics
> Educators"<PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 06:39:25 -0800
> To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> Subject: Re: Newton's Cradle
>
> In the good old days, tape recorders often needed to be de-magnetized.
> There were commercial devices made to de-magnetize the various metal
> parts in the tape's path.  You might check with your audio-visual
> department to see if they still have such a device.  Hold the gizmo well
> away from the metal, turn it on, very slowly move it towards the metal,
> move it about the metal, then very slowly move it away from the metal
> and finally turn it off.
> Glenn Malin
> University High School
> Irvine, CA
>
> > > > dabineri@CHOICE.NET 11/20/02 06:56PM >>>
> The steel spheres in the Newton's Cradle I have are now magnetized be
> being too close to a powerful magnet. While this produces some
> interesting variations of the cradle's normal operation, I would
> prefer
> non magnetic spheres.
>
> Is there a convenient way to demagnetize a sphere?
>
> Thanks,     David Abineri
>
> --
> David Abineri
> dabineri@choice.net
>
> This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU
> or the AAPT.
>
> This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the
> AAPT.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.