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Sunday 6 March 2016

Magnetism

The first people to discover the magnetic rocks were the Chinese. They called it "the loving stone" because the stones love metal the way parents love children. At first, the Chinese used the stones to carry out fortune-telling and magic tricks.

The ancient Indian physician Sushruta was the first to make use of the magnet for surgical purposes.around 600 BC.

Drawing of a medical treatment using magnetic brushes. Charles Jacque 1843

The study of magnetic fields began in 1269 when French scholar Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt mapped out the magnetic field on the surface of a spherical magnet using iron needles. Noting that the resulting field lines crossed at two points he named those points 'poles' in analogy to Earth's poles. He also clearly articulated the principle that magnets always have both a north and south pole, no matter how finely one slices them.

Birds can see the Earth's magnetic field.

Humans actually possess the protein (cryptochromes) needed for the detection of magnetic fields. But our brains doesn't seem to have any way to decode the information.

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reached Earth in 2004. It was the most magnetic object ever perceived by mankind, with a magnetic field of over 1015 gauss in intensity

A magnetar is a neutron star that has fields so magnetic, it can rip you apart from over 600 miles away.

Magnetism can levitate organic matter if given enough energy.

Iron-shelled snails are possibly the only magnetic animal in the world.

Magnetite, the most magnetic natural metal on Earth, has been found in the bodies of animals that navigate via the planet's magnetic field.

Iron, cobalt and nickel are magnetic. Metals that have iron in them attract magnets well. Steel is one. Metals like brass, copper, zinc and aluminum are not attracted to magnets. Non-magnetic materials such as wood and glass are not attracted to magnets as they do not have magnetic materials in them.

A "horseshoe magnet" made of alnico, an iron alloy. By Eurico Zimbre

There's a type of neutron star called a magnetar which has a magnetic field that's so powerful that being within 1,000 miles of one would warp all the atoms in your body and from a distance of 100,000 miles away it would be able to wipe out the data of every credit card on the planet.

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reached Earth on December 27, 2004. It was at the time the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on our planet. The neutron star is also the most magnetic object ever perceived by mankind, with a magnetic field of over 1015 gauss in intensity.

Magnetism have been used in a number of a songs to illustrate something (usually a person or a groove) that is so attractive, it pulls you toward it like a magnet. Some examples are:
"Magnet And Steel" by Walter Egan
"Magnets Caught in a Metal Heart" by Thursday
"Magnetic" by Earth, Wind & Fire
"Magnetic" by Flyleaf
"Magnets" by Disclosure

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