Can you make an ice magnet by freezing water in a magnetic field?

Question

This question inspired by:
On the discovery channel, a frog was levitated in a magnetic field because it contained water, a dipole.

Wait! Why not? Don't you get something, like electrostatic or slight something in the outer orbitals?? Explain please!!!

Answer 1

That's an interesting question. Have a star. The answer is definitely maybe. Water can be levitated stably this way because it is slightly diamagnetic. That means it magnetizes in the opposite direction to an applied magnetic field (opposite to what a ferromagnet like iron would do). This is *consistent* with the H2O molecule having an intrinsic magnetic dipole moment, but I'm not sure it has one. I do know that it has an large intrinsic *electric* dipole moment, which means it aligns itself in an *electric* field. If it does, it would be diamagnetic because the molecules rotate into alignment. If, however, the molecule only develops a polarization *in response* to a magnetic field, such a field could not be frozen in. I suspect, though, that it has an intrinsic magnetic moment. The next question is then, are all the molecules in an ice crystal aligned, or does the unit cell include equal numbers of oppositely aligned molecules? If the latter, that would obliterate any polarization while it freezes. If the former, the crystals would prefer to align diamagnetically and then freeze that way. So, like I said, definitely maybe. Now, go look up the intrinsic magnetic dipole moment of H2O, and get a good drawing of molecules in an ice crystal.

PS. I added a comment to your mushroom on mushroom question.

Answer 2

No.