A magnet is a material that produces a magnetic field though not visible. Magnets have been useful time and time again from lifting heavy things easier, to becoming a good and easier way of opening bag, wearing bracelet, closing notebook, etc. Products like permanent magnets and magnet snaps are currently used in a lot of daily things.
TYPES OF MAGNETS ACCORDING TO THEIR STRENGTHS
There are five main classes or divisions of magnets depending on their strength from the strongest to the weakest.
- Neodymium Magnets; they are the strongest magnets commercially available and incredibly resistant to demagnetization. Astonishingly it can hold 1000 times its own weight and is corrosion resistant.
- Samarium Cobalt Magnets; also part of the rare earth family of magnetic materials
- Alnico Magnets; they have the wildest spectrum of strength of any permanent magnetic material. They match well in performance with neodymium magnets.
- Ferrite magnets; inexpensive and have a god balance in terms of strength and price
- Flexible rubber Magnets; much weaker than solid magnets of a similar size.
More about Neodymium magnets:
There are eight different standard grades of neodymium magnets typically used in commercial applications today which range from N30 to N52; N52 being graded as the highest in strength and the best magnetic performance and N35 being the weakest.
Grade N42 offers a high performance at an economical price. For example, you can find products N42 Magnetic Snap, N42 Permanent Magnet, and N42 Magnetic Clasp.
Grade above N42 are more expensive and the rise in price can also disproportionate to the increase in performance.
For instance you’ll find that grade N52 being 20% more powerful than N42 but the price can be twice that of N42.
Properties of Magnets;
- Attractive property- when magnets attract ferromagnetic materials like iron cobalt and nickel.
- Repulsive property- when alike magnet poles repel each other.
- Directive property- a freely suspended magnet always points in a north-south direction.
Types of Magnets:
- Permanent magnetsare objects made from a material that is magnetized and creates its persistent magnetic field. For example, a refrigerator magnet is usually used to hold notes on the door surface.
- Temporary magnet, only magnetic when in the presence of a magnetic field
- Electromagnet, made from a coil wire that acts as a magnet when an electric current passes through it but stops being current when the current stops.
MAGNETS IN EVERYDAY OBJECTS
Magnets can be found in the simplest devices to the most complex devices we use in our day-to-day activities, here below are some of the practical examples of our use of magnets in our daily lives.
- HandbagMagnetic Snaps; Magnets are used in some handbags to keep them closed.
- HookMagnet; Hook magnets can be used to hang art from walls and posters. They can also be used to organize closets by hanging scarves, jewelry, belts, and more.
- School bag Magnetic Closure; schoolbagsand other bags we use in our daily lives all have magnets attached to them, magnetic closures are also used to make jewelry, the small magnets in clasps are used to make unfastening them easier. The clasps can release if excessive force is applied and this saved breaking a necklace that has become snagged on something accidentally.
- Clip Magnet; neodymium magnetsare useful in metal office supplies such as clips and thumbtacks, that will stick to a magnet so they won’t move.
- Permanent Magnet, when you have an outdoor party you can use magnets to put them in place and prevent table clothes from flying in the wind with everything that sits on it at the table.
- Locking CabinetsMagnetic Fastener, cabinet doors will be locked by magnet locker so they don’t open accidentally.
- Pop sockets for which are phone gripsare usually stuck at the back of the phone.
- Magnetic spice rack in the kitchen, one way to keep our spices organized is to use magnets, some custom made racks use neodymium magnetsto hold jars together which you can place on the refrigerator or another surface.
- Refrigeratormagnet, some iconic fridge magnet make your fridge surface a master piece.
- Builda bulletin board on wall covered painting with metal material.
- Notebook cover magnetic snaps, some expensive notebooks, and folders use thin neodymium magnetsto keep them closed.
OTHER REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS AND USES OF MAGNETS
- Magnets are used inside a generator to transform mechanical energy to electrical energy and vice versa from mechanical energy to electrical energy for other kinds of motors.
- Magnets are present inside a computer which we use in our daily activities, magnetic elements on a hard disk help to represent computer data which is later read by the computer to extract information.
- Magnets are used in MRI machines which are used in hospitals to create images of the bone, structure, organs, and tissues. Magnets can also be used in cancer treatment.
- The dark stripe in the back of our debit cards and credit cards are magnetic and are used to store data just like hard drives in computers.
- Magnets are used in Television, all televisions have cathode ray tubes, or CRTs and these have magnets inside.
- Burglar alarms, use magnets to trigger a reed switch so the alarm knows when the window is being opened.
REMARK
Access to magnets on a local basis may be a bit challenging but lucky for you in this article we have attached a link to an online store for a good offer, Richarms.( richarms.myshopify.com)