Magnetic Putty Eats a Cube

(YouTube link)

A lump of magnetic putty totally engulfs a rare-earth magnet in slow motion. The actual sequence is eight times longer than this video shows. The putty will not rest until the magnet is at the center of the glob. What is this "magnetic putty"? From the YouTube link:

The putty looks and feels like regular silly putty, but the difference lies in the fact that it has been infused with millions of micron-sized ferrous particles (most often iron oxide powder). The magnetic putty is not actually magnetic by itself, since the infused particles are made of iron powder.

The presence of the strong neodymium iron boron magnet (the silver cube in the video) magnetizes the ferromagnetic particles in the putty. When this happens, the ferrous particles align with each other and this alignment generates north and south magnetic poles, making the putty into a temporary magnet. Once magnetized, the putty will remain magnetized even after the rare-earth magnet has been removed from the putty. This effect persists for a few hours until thermal agitation shakes the particles and they lose their alignment.

Scott Lawson has other videos about magnetic putty at his YouTube channel. -via Digg


Comments (1)

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There a mixing between "network" and "internet". Although Sept 2 1969 marks the beginning of networked computers, that hardly is the start of the internet, although it was a required step for the internet to appear.

IMHO, Jan 1, 1983 should be day 1, mostly because that's when TCP/IP was adpted.

The day 2 computers 1st comunicated using TCP/IP and through a router should be regarded as the first internet-like communication, and thus this day should mak the birthdate of the internet.
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Came back to see if my comment had been approved :)

I second SimonSays' suggestion. January 1st makes sense, and, more importantly, is easy to remember.
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"The test data was meaningless, but the breakthrough eventually led to the formation of the internet, but there were plenty of other milestones."

That's a lot of buts.
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"Oct 29, 1969: Message sent from computer to computer in different locations.

1971: The first email was sent.
Jan 1, 1983: ARPANET adopted the standard TCP/IP protocol.

March 1989: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

April 22, 1993: Mosaic became the first web browser."

August 4, 1997 - Skynet goes online

:P
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@ Daisychain:

"would www be the same as “internet”?"

No... the www is just one of the applications of the internet. It has a related protocol: HTTP. It has to do with the traffic and presentation of web pages.

E-mail is another application (and it's protocols, like SMTP & POP). There are many other, but www and e-mail is what interest most people.
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