Forces and Magnets
To finish off our 'Forces and Magnets' unit of work, the children investigated the following statement:
The larger the magnet, the stronger it is – true or false?
Lotus - "I think this is true because the bigger the magnet, the bigger the magnetic force."
Finley - "I think this is false because I've used both before whilst on my boat with my Dad and found this out myself."
Arthur - "I think this is false because surely all magnets have the same strength."
In groups, they put this to the test and using a selection of different magnets, investigated and recorded how many paper clips each could hold. Their results found this statement to be false. We concluded that the strength of the magnet is not determined by the size of the magnet, but the size of the magnetic force.