INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader, 

Congratulations on finding this website! It is one of a kind because it is based on a unique “storytelling” methodology. 

It starts out with a story about the Scientist Mike and his friend the lab mouse Maxi. The story is a ‘cliff-hanger’ story and requires your fantasy and knowledge to be completed. After the story there are a number of science experiments related to this book’s subject - Magnetism!

The experiments will help you arrive at a conclusion to the story. And before you read the official ending, you need to finish the story in your own words using the knowledge that you gain by doing the science experiments.

Sounds like fun? It is! Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Roland Oberdorfer

Headmaster of Science Castle.

BACKGROUND - Magnets

Magnets have fascinated humans ever since they were discovered. According to history magnets were first found in a town called Magnesia, close to the modern Turkish town of Soke. It was considered as pieces of iron that attract other pieces of iron. Later on people discovered that many iron ores have magnetic capabilities.

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. They are mostly found in Sweden, Norwegian, Chile and Hungary. 

Natural magnets are called lodestones and were often considered magical. Today artificial magnets made out of steel are far more used in technology than natural magnets. As you probably know our planet Earth has two poles – a South Pole and a North Pole. The Earth’s magnetic field is shaped roughly as a magnetic dipole, with the poles currently located proximate to the planet’s geographic poles.

A Mysterious Force

What’s mysterious about magnetism is that none of our senses are able to identify it. It is an invisible force that is able to hold on to objects without any visible mechanisms like glue or hooks.

What is even more amazing is that the capability can be transferred to other objects that are made out of iron. The force can even travel through other materials like wood, glass, paper, and air as well.

Magnetic Dipole

A magnetic dipole is a closed circulation of electric current. A simple example of this is a single loop of wire with some constant current flowing through it. All magnets have at least one south pole and one north pole. The north pole of a magnet attracts the south pole. Like poles of magnets repel each other. The magnetic strength of attraction or repulsion depends on the intensity of the magnetic field.

A magnetic field is a range of imaginary lines of attractive or repulsive forces that, for example, indicate the direction a compass needle will point. That’s how you can use a compass to find directions on planet Earth

THE MYSTERIOUS THEFT - THE STORY BEGINS ...

Mike was sitting in class listening to Professor Balduin who talked about geometry. He did not like this subject very much and he was looking forward to meeting Maxi in the Science Castle garden afterwards.

He was playing with a paperclip in his hands and bent it in all kinds of forms and shapes, when all of the sudden something totally unexpected happened.

 His paperclip was pulled sideways out of his hands and flew straight towards the wall to the left of the room. But this was not the only flying object. Many other objects did the same – coins, keys, pencil sharpeners and even the big metal ruler zoomed through the air and hit the wall with a big bang. 

For a couple of seconds the room was filled with noise from all these flying objects crashing against the wall. The children in class screamed. Some of the children got hit by the flying objects and started crying. Mike just dug for cover when a loose window knob made its way to the wall.

 Then it became quiet. The students and the teacher just stared at the objects that seemed to be pinned to the wall. The wall was covered with all sorts of objects. And instead of falling to the ground they seemed to be glued to the wall. Just when everyone started to recover from what just happened, all of the objects fell to the floor at the same time and caused a second wave of loud noise. 

Everyone just ducked for cover again and children started to scream.“What was that?” asked Desiree, the girl next to Mike. “Well, I don’t know”, he said when the school alarm went off. Then a voice over the speakers blasted: “EVERYBODY STAY CALM AND SLOWLY WALK OUTSIDE. WE WILL ASSEMBLE IN THE SCHOOLYARD.”

Still not knowing what just happened, Mike left the classroom with all his classmates and walked down the isles, when he suddenly felt something drop on his shoulder. It was his friend Maxi – the talking lab mouse. 

“Mike, do you know what happened?” he asked. “No, but it was very strange”, the boy responded. “We have to find out. I will sneak into the headmaster’s office and listen to what they are talking about. I will see you in 20 minutes in your room.”, and Maxi was gone. 

Maxi entered the headmaster’s office through a small hole behind the headmaster’s desk. Headmaster Professor Franciscan was sitting at his desk talking to Mr. Glukovki, the school’s head of treasury.

“This is impossible. All of our money disappeared. None of the school’s money is left. But the door of the treasury room is still locked and the bars in front of the only window in the room (which is 20 feet above!) are still in place.

It seems like no one has been in the room, but yet all the money is gone!!” “There must be an explanation,” exclaimed the Headmaster. “And it has to have something to do with the flying objects. That’s for sure.”

Maxi had heard enough. He rushed back to see Mike. After he reported everything that he had just heard, they both looked at each other and said: 

“The Evil Dr. D.”But how could he have done this? And where is the money and Dr. D now?

EXPERIMENT #1: Discover Magnets

Discover the attractive and repulsive nature of the magnets with each other and then test common materials. Go to experiment

EXPERIMENT #2: Measure the “speed” of magnets

Discover how fast different type of magnets can make their way through a Copper tube.

EXPERIMENT #3: A Magnetic Suspension

How to create a system of shock absorbers, designed to reduce unwanted motion transmitted from a riding surface, using two magnets and a pencil?

EXPERIMENT #4: Magnetic Screwdriver

Turn an ordinary screwdriver into a magnet.

EXPERIMENT #5: Identifying Fake Magnets

Suppose someone gave you two magnets that look identical. One of them is a magnet and one of them is not. How would you tell one from the other? You can only touch them together but to nothing else. Is there any way to tell the real one from the fake one?

EXPERIMENT #6: Make a Compass

Keep a small magnet with you when you are out backpacking or hiking. If you forgot your compass you can make your own.

EXPERIMENT #7: Make a Pen Hover in Mid Air

It is really difficult to have one magnet hover over another one in mid air. Use this simple construction to make a pen hover in mid air.

EXPERIMENT #8: Magnetic Money

Did you know? You can use magnets to identify if money is real or fake.

HOW THE STORY ENDS

Now that you have done all the experiments, do you know how Mike and Maxi can find the Evil Dr. D and get the school's money back in their possession?

Before you read our ending of the story write your own ending based on the knowledge that you gained by doing the science experiments above. 

Science Castle's ending

Mike and Maxi quickly concluded that the theft involved a very strong magnet. All the iron based objects flew against the wall at the exact same time as the money was stolen out of the school's treasury room. Since money is magnetic, the thief must have used a very strong magnet that he put on a string and let it down through the window into the room with all the dollar bills. Since the ink in the bills is magnetic, they all got attracted to the magnet and the thief simply had to pull the magnet with the money back up.

Mike and Maxi pulled out a compass and checked where the needle pointed to. Instead of North the needle pointed East. The magnet of the thief was so strong that it made the compass show its position instead of the Earth's North Pole. That was what Mike and Maxi exactly had hoped for.

Using their magnet the two located the Evil Dr. D in no time and called the policy. The Evil Dr. D was arrested once again.