Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am conducting an experiment on the effects of magnets on plant growth. I know this is a highly contested idea, so I want to get the strongest (affordable) magnet possible, to have optimal chance for results. I have found in my research that neodymium rare earth magnets are extremely strong, but I am wondering if you can make an electromagnet that is stronger than they are? I have not been able to find much on the relative strengths of electromagnets.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

It is really nice that you have done some research about the magnet. Yes, neodymium magnet I believe is the most powerful permanent magnet for now. It is affordable (for your project you don't need too much of it) and efficient. Electromagnet is not as strong as neodymium magnet unless you use a fairly big one, and that will be complicated. I did some research, as you said, there were not much information about the strength of electromagnet, and it was pretty hard to calculate. I have done some experiments of electromagnet; it seems not as strong as neodymium magnet. I would like to use neodymium magnet for your experiment.
Caution: The neodymium magnet is a really strong magnet, so don't put your finger between to magnets. Be careful about credit cards, floppy disks, CRT display, and some other electronic products. By the way, if the temperature higher than eighty Celsius degrees, the neodymium magnet can lose their magnetism.

Here I have some price of neodymium magnet:
http://www.unitednuclear.com/magnets.htm
http://amasci.com/neodemo.html#get

This is a really good question. I hope it helps. If there are further questions, put them on the forum, and we will try our best to help you.

Have fun with your project.

Hi Catherine!

You can provide two queries to answers.com:

"What is the strongest type of magnet?" and
"What is the price of the strongest type of magnet?"

The first query happens to hit one one of the built-in answers in answers.com.

The second query gives many choices to spend your money.

Notes:

1. The exact wording of your input to answers.com, or any other search engine, may have a big impact on your result. So, some experimentation may be needed.
2. Beware of sites that are just trying to sell you something. In answers.com, these are supposed to be segregated under "Sponsored Links." But, they occasionally leak into "Web Results." Here in query #2, you may be looking to buy something!