Magnetism? Project? please help me. thank you very much

[Chococat]

I performed this project idea: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ?from=Home

I am have successfully completed the entire project, analyzed data, and have made my conclusions. However I am required to explain how this project is related to physics. I have researched a few things and learned that it has something to do with electric currents.

In this project, I replaced the coins with washers and have concluded that washers whose diameters are larger, have weaker magnetizations to the coat hanger (I replaced coat hanger with a thick metal wire)

So basically,
from the experiment I've learned that the smaller the diameter, the farther the distance between the gap and wall.
the larger the diameter, the closer the distance is between the gap and wall, and those whose diameters are very large are more likely to not be magnetized to the metal wire at all. Also the thicker the washer, the easier it is for it to walk up the metal wire.

I did not use formulas and such in this experiment, I've just proved what I stated in bold above. I'd very much appreciate it if you took the time to explain to me how this project is related to physics. I am having a hard time understanding because all I did was see how diameter affects the washer's magnetization to the metal wire. I did not use formulas or prove any (at least I do not think I proved any), I just merely learned how size affects distance in which the washer can be magnetized.

Forgive me, this seems rather long *gives you a cookie if you've read through all of it ^_^*

[Chococat]

lol so I guess my main question is how does solving how diameter affects the distance over which the washer can be magnetized related to physics?

Since (although I should not be comparing), we have already started to discuss and present in class our presentations. Some people have done amazing projects explaining kinetic energy principles, forces, momentum, etc. And now I look back on my project and ask myself "how does diameter relate to physics?", "what does it prove."

Obviously this is a physics project, but how and why? How is it generally related to physics?

[Chococat]

does anyone know?

[deleted-2131]

Chococat,

Welcome to the Ask an Expert Forums. We're not a live forum; the Experts are from all sorts of different places, in lots of different time zones, so it usually takes between 24 and 48 hours to get a response to your posting. Posting multiple times doesn't get your question answered any faster.

Instead of asking how your project relates to physics, maybe it would be better to ask how your project doesn't related to physics! Your project studied magnetism, which is a physical phenomena often studied by physicists. The very fact that your project is about magnetism makes your project a physics project. For more on magnetism, a quick Google search will provide you more details.

Let us know if we can be of further help.

Good Luck!

[deleted-71588]

There is a lot of physics hiding in this experiment. It typically takes at least 15 credit hours of college calculas, 10 credit hours of chemistry, 10 credit hours of physics, 25 credit hours of electrical engineering to even scratch the surface of Electric Fields, Magnetic Fields, Magnetic permubility, Force vectors, etc. involved in learning enough to really understand this experiment and be able to accurately calculate and predict everything involved (aka reducing this to an engineering exercise).

If you go back in history to when the pioneers in these fields were learning, they didn't have access to all of this technical information because they hadn't figured it out. That didn't stop them from being able to apply scientific methods to investigating things they didn't understand. In other words, you can learn to use the scientific method to come to valid conclusions about things you don't fully understand and in the process gain knowledge. That is what science is all about.

Read up on the scientific method on this site and go back and see if you can formulate a hypothesis related to your diameter question and see if you can answer it with your experiment. In other words, you got things a bit out of order, so it is back to the beginning for a new start.