I am doing an exit project. I would like to know how water is magnetized. My science teacher doesn't know and would also like to find out, I'm sure. If you know how to, it would be a great help if you helped me. Thanks!
2007-01-04 07:32:08 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Magnetism affects materials with an appreciable ferrous (iron) content. Water consists of a hydrogen and two oxygen molecules. You're not going to "magnetize" water.
2007-01-04 07:39:23 · answer #1 · answered by Trollbuster 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very few materials are able to become permanent magnets. Every atom in a substance has a magnetic moment. Generally, they all point in different directions, canceling each other out. However, in a few materials, clumps of atoms that are near each other all tend to point in the same direction. When many of these clumps all point in the same direction, the material has become a permanent magnet. (like a refrigerator magnet) Water will never become a permanent magnet since molecules of water are all flowing through and past each other all the time, the magentic moments of the molecules will never line up. Ice, maybe at a low enough pressure, but not liquid water.
2007-01-04 15:37:36 · answer #2 · answered by Nicknamr 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Could water be magnetized even within an external magnetic field?
The water molecule is indeed polarized: because of the relative position of the hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom, there is one side which is slightly (electrically) positive and another slightly negative. (A consequence of this is the phenomenon of surface tension.)
That makes of the water molecule an electrical dipole, which reacts rather well to ELECTRIC fields, but not, unfortunately for your question, to magnetic ones. In particular, water will be oblivious of a constant magnetic field (one where there is no electric field).
On the other hand, start varying the magnetic field, and you automatically produce an associated electric field. Given the right frequency (something attuned to the normal mode of vibration of the water molecule), you will easily manage to excite the molecules, thanks to that varying electric field.
By the way, the last paragraph is a description of a micro-wave oven! ;)
2007-01-04 16:09:26 · answer #3 · answered by Christine F 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It can't be magnetized.
2007-01-04 15:42:10 · answer #4 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋