Physics investigatory project

1. Certificate
This is to certify that Tanya Ahuja of class XII-A of the Indian
School has successfully completed this project on the topic
Temperature dependence of magnetic strength of
permanent magnets under the guidance of Mrs. Archana
Raichandani in the year 2016-17.
2. Acknowledgement
The successful completion of any task would be
incomplete without mentioning the names of those persons
who helped to make it possible. I take this opportunity to
express my sincere gratitude in few words and respect to all
those who helped me in the completion of this project. It is
my humble pleasure to acknowledge my deep sense of
gratitude to my Physics teacher, Mrs. Archana Raichandani
for her valuable support, constant help and guidance at
each and every stage, without which this project would not
have come forth.
I also register my sense of gratitude to our
principal, Mrs. Tania Joshi, for her immense encouragement
that has made this project successful. I would also like
to thank my friends and family for encouraging me
during the course of this project. Last, but not the least, I
would like to thank CBSE for giving us the opportunity to
undertake this project.
3. Introduction:
What is a magnet?

A piece of a material which has its component atoms so

ordered that the material exhibits properties of magnetism,
such as attracting other iron-containing objects or aligning
itself in an external magnetic field is called a magnet.
There are charges inside a magnet that are moving. Inside
the metal, the electrons are orbiting the nucleus of each
atom. And when charges move, they produce magnetic
 fields. In a lot of non-magnetic materials, there are electrons
orbiting in both directions, and their magnetic fields cancel
out. But in some special magnetic materials, like iron for
example, there is not an even number of electrons orbiting
both ways, and an overall magnetic field is produced. Due to
quantum mechanical spin, electrons spinning one way will
produce a magnetic field, and if the spins of all the electrons
don't cancel out, you get a magnetic field.
Atoms in which both of these things: orbits and spins, don't
cancel out, act like tiny magnets. And these
magnets can combine together to make a material
magnetic.
What are permanent magnets?

A permanent magnet is an object made from a material that

is magnetized and creates its own persistent magnetic field.
Materials that can be magnetized are also the ones that are
strongly attracted to a magnet, are called
ferromagnetic (or ferromagnetic). These
include iron, nickel, cobalt, some alloys of rare earth metals,
and some naturally occurring minerals such as lodestone.

What is the experiment about?

In this experiment we are trying to observe what happens to

the strength of a magnet as its temperature is changed.
4. Objective/Aim: To find out how temperature affects the
strength of a magnet.
5. Apparatus:
The materials required for this science project::
- 11 magnets
- 150 pins
- 1 flat tray
- 1 oven
- 1 scientific thermometer
- 1 refrigerator
- 1 pair of gloves

6. Theory:
Magnetic field:
1. A region around a magnetic material or a moving electric
charge within which the force of magnetism acts is defined as a
magnetic field.
Just as static charges produce an electric field, moving charges
produce (in addition) a magnetic field, denoted by B(r). It obeys
the principle of superposition.
Magnetic field lines:
These are not being called magnetic lines of force as these do not
indicate the direction of force on a moving charge.
Some properties of magnetic field lines are:
(i) The magnetic field lines of a magnet (or a solenoid) form
continuous closed loops.
(ii) The tangent to the field line at a given point represents the
direction of the net magnetic field B at that point.
(iii) The larger the number of field lines crossing per unit area,
the stronger is the magnitude of the magnetic field.
(iv) The magnetic field lines do not intersect, for if they did, the
direction of the magnetic field would not be unique at the
point of intersection.
One way to plot magnetic field lines is by using a magnetic
compass.
Ferromagnetic materials:
Ferromagnetic substances are those substances in which each
individual atom/molecule/ion has non-zero magnetic moment. In
hard ferromagnetic materials, magnetization persists even after
removal of external magnetic field. Such materials are used in
making permanent magnets.
When they are placed in an external magnetic field, they get
strongly magnetized in the direction of magnetic field.
They are strongly attracted towards a magnet.
Ferromagnetic substances have a strong tendency to move to the
region of strong magnetic field from the area of weak magnetic
field when they are placed in a non-uniform magnetic field.
Permeability of these substances is very large.
Susceptibility (magnetic susceptibility determines how easily a
material can be magnetized) decreases with increase in
temperature.
A ferromagnetic material gets strongly magnetized due to the
following reasons:
1. Displacement of boundaries of the domains- the domains whose
magnetic dipole moment is along the direction of external
magnetic field, increase in size and those domains whose
magnetic dipole moment is opposite to the applied field,
decreases in size. So the substance develops a net strong dipole
moment along the direction of applied magnetic field.
2. Rotation of the domains- if the applied magnetic field is very
strong then all the domains rotate and align along the direction of
the magnetic field. So a net magnetic moment is developed in the
ferromagnetic substances along the direction of the applied
magnetic field.

Curie temperature: In physics and materials science, the Curie

temperature (TC), or Curie point, is the temperature at which
certain materials lose their permanent magnetic properties, to be
replaced by induced magnetism. The Curie temperature is named
after Pierre Curie, who showed that magnetism was lost at a
critical temperature.

Curie law:

According to curie law, intensity of magnetization (I) of a magnetic

material is

(i) Directly proportional to magnetic induction (B) and

(ii) Inversely proportional to the temperature t of the material

M= C. BT

Where,

M is the resulting magnetization

B is the magnetic field, measured in telsa
T is absolute temperature, measured in kelvins
C is a material-specific Curie constant.
7. Procedure:
1. For this science project, the independent variable is the
temperature of the water containing the magnet - 0 C, 25
C, 50 C, 75 C and 100 C. The dependent variable is the
number of pins picked up by the magnet. This is determined
by counting the number of pins that stick to the magnet.

2. Magnets are kept overnight in freezer of the refrigerator, in

order for them to stabilize at 0 C for use in the experiment.

3. The next day, 250 pins are spread over a flat tray. The
temperature of the magnets is measured using the
scientific thermometer. Wearing gloves grab a magnet and
place it over the pins in the tray to pick up as many pins as
possible. The results are recorded in the table given below
for each of the magnets.

4. The magnets are placed under room temperature until a

temperature of 25 C is reached. Procedure 3 is repeated
using the same magnets and the number of pins picked up
is recorded in the table below.

5. Procedures 4 and 3 are repeated by bringing the

temperature of the magnet to 50 C, 75 C and 100 C, by
heating them in an oven. The results are recorded in the
table given below.
 8. Observation: It was observed that as the magnets
temperature was increased, the number of pins picked up
by the magnets reduced.
mini horses triang
bar bar star ring hoe le arrow
mag magn magn mag magn magn magne frid natu perm stro
net et et net et et t ge ral anent ng
0
C 19 28 96 89 36 98 140 65 130 169 219
25
C 16 25 74 67 30 84 134 39 79 111 130
50
C 14 21 58 45 27 78 98 25 59 91 121
75
C 11 15 48 34 20 70 79 17 47 63 92
10
0
C 6 9 31 25 12 55 60 15 23 52 79
No. of pins attracted by magnets at various temperatures
250
mini bar magnet
bar magnet
200 star magnet
ring magnet
horseshoe magnet
150
triangle magnet
arrow magnet
No. of pins
fridge
100
natural
permanent
strong
50

0
0 C 25 C 50 C 75 C 100 C

9. Conclusion: Increasing the temperature of a magnet will

reduce its strength.
10. Precautions:
(I) Temperature should be noted carefully so that no error in
reading occurs due to parallax.
(II) Magnets should be kept softly on the tray.
(III) Magnets after heating should be handled with care and
gloves are to be worn throughout the experiment.
(IV) Care should be taken while counting pins to prevent any
harm and non-accurate readings.
(V) Total pins should be recounted after experimenting with
each magnet to check if any pins have been lost.
11. Sources of error
(I) Error due to parallax might occur while noting down the
temperature of the magnet.
(II) Some pins might get lost during the experiment causing
readings to be non-accurate.
(III) Thermometer might not be calibrated properly for use.
(IV) Counting of pins might not be done accurately.
(V) There might be time lag between noting down of
temperature and doing the experiment.
12. Bibliography
Web links:
http://www.slideshare.net/GauravSharma568/dependence-
of-high-temperature-on-strength-of-magnet
http://www.all-science-fair-
projects.com/print_project_1440_91
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_temperature
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-magnet-
definition-examples.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie%27s_law
Books:
Ncert class 12 physics textbook part-1