A JAVA-BASED MULTIMEDIA MAGNETIC EXPLORER

Observations carried on magnetic interactions are a very fascinating tool to introduce the fundamental physical concept of field. The use of iron filings to display the magnetic field is well known; quantitative measurements on magnetic interactions are instead less common, mainly at high school level. Furthermore, many multimedia tools are available, illustrating the line-of-force pattern of magnets, although often referring to “ideal” systems. In this context a high educational potential is associated with the integrated use of quantitative measurements and visualization tools. In this work we present a Java-based multimedia allowing to virtually explore a real experiment realizable by only using easily found materials: strong little magnets and ferromagnetic spheres obtained from the well-known Geomag™ toy, a precision electronic scales, available in a hardware store, and a little more. The interactive multimedia proposed allows learners to immediately (and visually) relate the measured strength of magnetic interactions with the displayed qualitative magnetization pattern of involved ferromagnetic objects, when some experimental parameter (e.g. the reciprocal distance) is modified.