Throwing magnets

[5614]

Someone said that if you throw a magnet around (presumably against hard surfaces) the magnet will begin to lose its magnetism... the impact effects the magnetic domains or something...

 

Is this true?

[Callipygous]

from what i have heard, yes. impacts will make magnet weaker.

[5614]

Is it a reliable source you heard it from?

 

Is the magnetic field loss very significant? (talking about the kinda forces experienced from a hand held throw straight into a solid wall)

[Lance]

It depends on the type of magnet. I dont think that will affect neodymium magnets though.

[Phi for All]

I'd always heard that high impact upsets a magnet's molecular alignment and thus makes it weaker. I have no source for this.

[Janus]

Someone said that if you throw a magnet around (presumably against hard surfaces) the magnet will begin to lose its magnetism... the impact effects the magnetic domains or something...

 

Is this true?

 

A magnet is a magnet because of two things:

 

1. the indivdual atoms/molecules have a magnetic moment(due to an imbalance of the spins of the electrons each atom has a net magnetic field.

 

2. These moments are aligned. (the magnetic fields of the atom all point in the same direction.) And thus re-enforce each other.

 

If you strike a magnet sharply, you "dislodge" some of these atoms out of alignment and randomize them so that they no longer add to, and to some extent cancel out the total field of the magnet.

 

The same thing happens if you heat a magnet. As you heat it, the atoms vibrate. Heat it enough and the atoms will vibrate right out of alignment, and you will demagnetize your magnet.

[5614]

Yeah, I know that heating a magnet totaly destroys it as far as magnetivity is concerned... is throwing a magnet just as effective as heating one?

[Phi for All]

Yeah, I know that heating a magnet totaly destroys it as far as magnetivity is concerned... is throwing a magnet just as effective as heating one?

Effective? Am I to assume you want to destroy your magnet? High-impact is more effective in that you save on generated heat (except that which you generate by tjrowing), heating is more effective in that you don't beat up a surface by throwing a magnet against it.

[5614]

What I meant is that if you heat a magnet all magnetic field is lost (assuming you heat it past the critical temperature).... do you only have to throw a magnet a few times for this to occur, or would you have to be throwing it for weeks to make the magnetic field almost cease to exist?

[Phospholipid]

You only have to throw it a few times for some of its atoms to dislodge.

[mcoy]

as far as i know it, metal's magnetism weakens as you throw it around. that's what i do when i want my magnetized metal to lose its magnetism after i used it in my electromagnet...