Magnetism...

[Zacariaz]

Ok, I've got my self a new toy and what a toy! I just can't leave it alone!

Anyway, It's called the Neo Cube which doesn't describe it it anyway so instead you can watch it in action here: http://www.theneocube.com/

The thing is, I love it so much that I want more, but it is kinda expensive, so a buddy of mine gave me an idea. I'm just gonna make my own!

The idea is basically to get one or more electromagnets and some ball bearings and the rest you can probably figure out, if not you haven't clicked the link...

Anyway, I know close to nothing about magnetism and how it should be done or if it's even possible so if you know anything about the subject, feel free to post your comments.

[bewing]

I suspect that ONE of the balls is a nickel-plated neodymium permanent magnet, and all the rest are steel ball bearings, as you say. You need one of them to be a permanent magnet to induce a magnetic field in all the others. But they can't all be permanent magnets, or they would only stick together in one direction.

[tetsujin]

I suspect that ONE of the balls is a nickel-plated neodymium permanent magnet, and all the rest are steel ball bearings, as you say. You need one of them to be a permanent magnet to induce a magnetic field in all the others. But they can't all be permanent magnets, or they would only stick together in one direction.

No, the site says that all 216 are rare-earth magnets.

Imagine all the magnets are strung together, end-to-end - if you then fold this chain in half, what will happen is that the direction of the magnets in the two halves will now oppose - so the sides of the magnets in the two chains will stick together...

My favorite bit of text from the site is on the warnings page: "This product contains small balls."

[Zacariaz]

rare earth magnets...
You are of course correct, however, this makes me wonder why it's called rare earth magnets, i mean obviously they are not that rare...

[bewing]

"Rare earth elements" (often abbreviated as REE) is a term from 19th century chemistry. It is the name of a group of elements in the middle of the periodic table. And they are relatively rare, compared to the common stuff (C, Al, Fe, Si, H, O, N, Na, Ca, etc.).

[Solar]

Wikipedia on Rare Earth Elements

Wikipedia on Rare Earth magnets

The Periodic Table Table for all your elemental referencing needs.