Magnetic Materials

Domains, Curie points and hysteresis

An interactive lesson with 7 steps, about 6 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Ferromagnets contain domains; a field grows the aligned ones, magnetising the material.
• Above the Curie temperature, ferromagnetism disappears.
• Hysteresis: soft materials (narrow loops) for cores, hard materials (wide loops) for permanent magnets and data storage.

Steps

1. Paperclip but not foil
2. Domains
3. Too hot
4. Hysteresis
5. Choose the core
6. Warm transformers
7. Storing bits