Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Curie Point
Curie Point
When a piece of iron get too hot, it loe it attraction
to a magnet.
A piece of iron ordinaril will e attracted to a magnet, ut when ou heat
the iron to a high enough temperature (called the Curie point), it loe it
ailit to e magnetized. Heat energ cramle the iron atom o the can’t
line up and create a magnetic field—thi nack i a imple demontration of
thi effect.
CAUTION: lectricit can reall heat thing up. The wire can get reall hot when
ou're doing thi nack. e careful.
Tool and Material
A mall magnet uch a a ceramic dik magnet
tring, aout 1 foot (30 cm) long
A 3-inch (8-cm) length of thin teel wire, otained eparating one
trand from ordinar raided galvanized picture-hanging wire
A tand to hold the magnet pendulum and wire (example hown are
made from PVC, a platic cup, and wooden tick, ut feel free to
improvie uing availale material of our choice)
Two alligator-clip lead
One 6-volt lantern atter (or other 6-volt power uppl)
Tape
A note on material: raided copper wire and aluminum wire are availale, ut
will not work here; iron wire can work ut i not commonl availale. Whatever
ou ue, e ure to ta awa from platic-coated wire, which can urn if it get
hot.
Aeml
1. Make uitale tand either a hown in the photo aove or of our own
deign.
2. upend the magnet from the top of the tand with a tring. Make the
pendulum at leat 4 in (10 cm) long.
3. tretch the wire etween two pot o that, at it cloet, the wire i 1 in
(2.5 cm) from the magnet.
To Do and Notice
Touch the magnet to the wire. It hould magneticall attract and tick to the
wire.
Connect the clip lead to the terminal of the lantern atter. Connect one clip
lead to one ide of the wire, and touch the other clip lead to the wire on the
oppoite ide of the magnet. Current will flow through the wire, cauing it to
heat up. e careful—the wire will get hot! A the wire heat up and egin to glow,
the magnet will fall awa from the wire.
Take a clip lead awa from the wire and let the wire cool. When the wire i cool,
notice that the magnet will tick to it once again.
If the wire doe not heat up enough to glow red, move the clip lead cloer
together.
What’ Going On?
teel wire i made of atom that act like tin magnet, each of which ha a north
and outh pole of it own. Thee atom uuall point in all different direction,
o the teel ha no net magnetic field. ut when ou hold a magnet up to the
wire, the magnet make the teel atom line up. Thee lined-up atomic magnet
turn the teel wire into a magnet. The teel i then attracted to the original
magnet.
High temperature can ditur thi proce of magnetization. Thermal energ
make the teel atom jiggle ack and forth, dituring their magnetic
alignment. When the viration of the atom ecome too great, the atomic
magnet do not line up a well, and the teel loe it magnetim. The
temperature at which thi occur i called the Curie point.