Introduction: (Initial Observation)
While studying about water, I came across an article on the Internet about magnetized water and it’s healing properties. Article suggests that magnetized water tastes sweeter and has more clarity; Magnetized water has therapeutic affects and can heal wounds and reduce fevers.
I know that I never learned about magnetic water in school and I am wondering if water can really be magnetized?
Adults help and supervision is required for this project.
Information Gathering:
Gather information about magnet, material that can be magnetized and the process of magnetizing other material. Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in order to learn about the effects of magnet. Search the Internet for magnetized water and find out what others think about magnetized water. Keep track of where you got your information from.
Following are samples of information that I found with a link to their source.
The Miracle of Magnetized Water
Magnetized water transforms simple water into a miraculous liquid.
If the magnet is the right hand of magnetotherapy, magnetized water is the left. If any oral medicine is administered by the magnetotherapist, it is magnetized water and nothing else because medicines and drugs are irrelevant in this great system of healing. The magnet works on the body by correcting the imbalance in the magnetic field of the body, while magnetized water joins hand with it in the body of the patient to work its wonders. It may be stated that magnetized water supports the effect of the magnets being applied to the various parts of the body.
Source: http://www.space-age.com/magwater.html
Magnetize Your Beverages?
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Explorations, of Broomfield, Colorado, markets a large collection of books, videotapes, devices, and other items related to self-help and spirituality. Its products include a magnetic mug, a “Q-Ray Bracelet” alleged to “balance the body’s electromagnetic circuits,” and magnets claimed to provide pain relief in many parts of the body. The magnetic mug, which costs $45, is said to “magnetize beverages for better hydration
Source: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/magnetad.html
Dr. H.L. Bansal & Dr. R.S. Bansal’s
” If any oral medicine is administered by a magnetotherapist, it is magnetised water, because medicines and drugs are irrelevant in this great system of healing. The magnet works on the body by correcting imbalances in the magnetic field of the body, while magnetised water joins hand with it in the body of the patient to work its wonders. It may be stated that magnetised water supports the effect of the magnets being applied to the various part of the body.”
- Water is a transparent fluid, which has no colour, odour, shape or taste of its own. It takes the shape of its container and the colour, odour and taste of other things mixed with it. Thus it has the characteristic of assimilating the properties of other things.
- When the properties of a magnet are absorbed in water by continious contact between the two, the water gets magnetised and shows its beneficial effects on all ailments when taken internally.
Source: http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/yod/april/magnet.htm
Magnetized water has been used in many countries for its health benefits. There are three types of magnetic water: North pole water, South pole water, and both pole water. Each type offers different functions.
Source: http://www.synergyforlife.com/water.html
The History Of Magnetic Therapy
Magnetic therapy dates back to 800 B.C. when physicians in ancient Greece, Egypt, and China practiced it. It was described in the books of Homer, Hippocrates, and Aristotle.
This ancient knowledge is now rediscovered, as people all over the world are searching for natural alternatives from modern medicine for healthy, energetic lives.
Question/ Purpose:
What do you want to find out? Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and questions to write the statement.
The purpose of this project is to find out if water can be magnetized. I also want to see how does the physical properties of water change by process of magnetization.
Identify Variables:
When you think you know what variables may be involved, think about ways to change one at a time. If you change more than one at a time, you will not know what variable is causing your observation. Sometimes variables are linked and work together to cause something. At first, try to choose variables that you think act independently of each other.
Magnetization is the process of making a substance temporarily or permanently magnetic, as by insertion in a magnetic field.
Independent variable also known as manipulated variable is the material that we test for ability to be a permanent or temporary magnet. Possible values are (air, water, aluminum, or any other substance that we may include in our test)
Dependent variable also known as responding variable is the temporary or permanent magnetic properties. (Possible values are presence and absence)
Controlled variables are the test method and strength of magnetic field used to magnetize.
Constants are the experiment method, tools and procedures.
Hypothesis:
Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of things affect the system you are working with. Identifying variables is necessary before you can make a hypothesis. Following are some sample hypothesis:
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- Water can not be magnetized. My hypothesis is based on my gathered information about the material that can be magnetized and water was not one of them.
- Water can not be a permanent magnet, however it may be magnetized temporarily. My hypothesis is based on my gathered information of attraction force between atoms and molecules of different substances including water. It seems that there is a similarity between these forces and magnetic forces.
- Water can be magnetized. My hypothesis is based on …..
Experiment Design:
Design an experiment to test each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what you will do to answer each question. This list is called an experimental procedure. For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a “control.” A control is an additional experimental trial or run. It is a separate experiment, done exactly like the others. The only difference is that no experimental variables are changed. A control is a neutral “reference point” for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does by comparing it to not changing anything. Dependable controls are sometimes very hard to develop. They can be the hardest part of a project. Without a control you cannot be sure that changing the variable causes your observations. A series of experiments that includes a control is called a “controlled experiment.”
Experiment 1:
Principle: Any substance that can be magnetized must demonstrate some magnetic properties when places as the core of an electromagnet.
Procedure: Get a plastic test tube and wrap about 300 to 500 turns of magnet wire (gauge 28) around that, leaving about 1 foot in each end. You may optionally wrap some paper or masking tape on the tube before winding the coil.
Magnet wire is the type of insulated copper wire that is used in making electromagnets. That is why they call it magnet wire. The insulation of this wire is a thin layer of resin (like a clear paint). Some people don’t notice that magnet wire is insulated and they may mistakenly think of it as a bare copper wire.
The insulation of the wire ends can be removed with sand paper.
After you wrap the wire and your coil is ready, wrap some masking tape over the wire to prevent it from getting loose. Also remove the insulation of about one inch of wire on each end.
Fill up the tube with water, close the cap and connect the ends of the wire to a 6 volt battery.
Hold the test tube vertically and see if the bottom of the test tube can attract some iron filings.
This can show if the water in test tube is magnetized or not. You may remove the water and fill up the tube with nails and try this again.
Draw a conclusion from your result
If the test tube filled with nails can attract iron filing, but the test tube filled with water cannot attract iron filing, then you have shown that Iron nails can be magnetized, but water cannot be magnetized.
If the test tube filled with nails and the test tube filled with water can both attract iron filing, then you have shown that both water and iron nails can be magnetized.
If neither the test tube filled with nails nor the test tube filled with water can attract iron filing, then you must check your circuit and connections to find a problem because we already know that Iron can be magnetized.
Need a Results table and graph?
After testing water, repeat your experiment with iron, nickel, aluminum, wood and other materials in your test tube, and measure the amount of iron powder attracted by the test tube in a table. If you this, then you can have a bar graph with one bar for each material you test. The height of each bar will represent the amount of iron powder attracted by the test tube for that specific material.
Sample results table:
| Substance | Iron Powder attracted |
| Water | 0 |
| Iron | 2.3g |
| Nickel | 1.1g |
Experiment 2:
Introduction (Principle): A coil of insulated copper wire has very little or almost no resistance to a direct current of electricity. With AC current however, a coil will show a higher resistance because the electromagnetic field produced by AC current creates an opposite electrical force in the wire. If we insert a core of something that can be magnetized, this will increase the resistance of the coil by many times. Increase in resistance will usually cause increase in voltage across the coil and is measurable by an AC voltmeter. We use this principle to determine if water can be magnetized.
This experiment may also be performed with DC electricity (battery) with similar results.
Procedure:
Get an AC transformer (110 volts AC to 12 volts AC, about 10 VA) and optionally mount it on a board.
Get a test tube, wrap a paper or some masking tape around it and then wrap 500 turns of magnet wire on that. Magnet wire is the type of insulated copper wire that is used in making electromagnets.
To secure the coil of magnet wire, wrap some masking tape over that. Make sure you leave out about 1 foot from each end of the wire. Remove the insulation from the ends of wire.
Connect your test tube coil, a 12 volts, 5 Watt light bulb and a 12 volts AC transformer in series and then plug in the transformer.
The light bulb will turn on.
Use an AC volt meter to measure the voltage across the coil wire.
Insert an Iron rod into the test tube to see how does the voltage change across the coil wire.
I used a drill bit as an Iron rod. You can use any long nail or other iron rod.
Remove the Iron rod and insert a copper rod or aluminum rod.
you can find all of these in hardware stores. If you can not find aluminum rod, roll a piece of aluminum foil instead. You may use a bunch of copper wire instead of copper rod.
I did not have a 12 volts, 5 Watt light bulb. So I connected two six volts light bulb in series to make it 12 volts. I had to do this because the output of my transformer was 12 Volts AC.
AC stands for Alternative Current.
Finally see how water can change the resistance of the coil. While your device is plugged and your voltmeter is showing the AC voltage across the coiled copper wire, use a pipette to fill up the test tube with water. Do you see any change in the voltage across the wire coil?
Record your observations. How do magnetized objects affect the resistance of the coil, the current in the circuit or the amount of the light?
Note that based on the formula of V = I * R, Voltage across the coil wire will increase by any increase in resistance of the coil.
Materials and substitutions
Note that the recommended voltage of the light bulb must be equal to or slightly more than the output voltage of the AC transformer. So if you use an AC transformer with a 9 Volt output, you must use a 9-volt light bulb or you may connect a 6-Volt bulb and a 3-Volt bulb in series. A 12-V light bulb or any combination of 9 to 12 volt will also work fine.
AC transformers (Adaptors) are usually power rated with VA (Volt Ampere) or W (Watt). To convert Volt Ampere to Watt you need to know that 6.5W = 10VA.
The wattage of the light bulbs you use is recommended to be about 20% up to 50% of the wattage of the transformer. In this way you can easily see the reduction of light in light bulbs (when you insert iron rod in the test tube) and the transformer will not overheat.
Control Experiments
Any of the above experiments performed with an empty test tube is a control experiment. Usually you are supposed to have two identical setups, so that you run your control experiment at the same time as your main experiment. In your main experiment you will fill up the tube with one of the test materials (water, iron, copper, ..). In your control experiment you use empty test tube.
Having two identical setup may be costly or time consuming; so, you may use your original experiment setup for the control experiment as well. In other words, before testing any of the materials (water, iron, …) you may repeat the test once with empty test tube.
Materials and Equipment:
List of material can be obtained from the experiment section. I used a plastic test tube that came with a bacteria growth kit of MiniScience.com. You can substitute it with any plastic or glass tube that is closed in one end.
Digital or Analog multi-meter can be purchased from MiniScience or any other electronic store. It’s about $15.00.
100 feet magnet wire AWG 28. Magnet wire can be purchased from MiniScience or Radio shack. If you can’t find it, just use any other insulated thin wire.
AC* transformer is available at hardware stores. I used the one that I removed from a broken projector. An AC transformer converts your 120 Volt AC (from a wall outlet) to about 10 to 15 Volts AC.
* AC= Alternative Current
MiniScience Part Numbers: (For your reference)
AC120_9 AC Transformer, 9 Volts, 10 VA
PTT16X125 Plastic Test Tube
MW28 500 B Magnet Wire 28 AWG
AMM360 Analog Multimeter
MINIBASE Miniature light bulb base/ lamp holder (May need 2)
E0502 _1 Miniature light bulb 5 Volt (You need 2)
Note: For best results your light bulb must be for the same voltage as your transformer. Otherwise you may need to use more than one light bulb in series so that the total voltage is equal to the voltage of transformer.
Results of Experiment (Observation):
Experiments are often done in series. A series of experiments can be done by changing one variable a different amount each time. A series of experiments is made up of separate experimental “runs.” During each run you make a measurement of how much the variable affected the system under study. For each run, a different amount of change in the variable is used. This produces a different amount of response in the system. You measure this response, or record data, in a table for this purpose. This is considered “raw data” since it has not been processed or interpreted yet. When raw data gets processed mathematically, for example, it becomes results.
The results of this project can be reported in one sentence. You will not need any graph for this project if you are only testing water. If you choose to test additional material such as Iron – nickel – cobalt – and ferrite, you may then compare their ability to become magnetized by measuring the weight of iron powder that they attract (in experiment number 1). If you are testing such materials, you can then use the following guideline to make a bar graph.
Make a graph:
Make a bar graph to show the ability of different material to become magnetized in a magnetic field. Make one vertical bar for each of the material that you test. The height of bar will be the amount of iron powder (in milligrams) that they attract.
Such a graph will show that the ability of iron to get magnetized is more than nickel and cobalt. It will also show that some other material such as water, wood and copper cannot be magnetized.
Calculations:
No calculation is required.
Summary of Results:
Summarize what happened. This can be in the form of a table of processed numerical data, or graphs. It could also be a written statement of what occurred during experiments.
It is from calculations using recorded data that tables and graphs are made. Studying tables and graphs, we can see trends that tell us how different variables cause our observations. Based on these trends, we can draw conclusions about the system under study. These conclusions help us confirm or deny our original hypothesis. Often, mathematical equations can be made from graphs. These equations allow us to predict how a change will affect the system without the need to do additional experiments. Advanced levels of experimental science rely heavily on graphical and mathematical analysis of data. At this level, science becomes even more interesting and powerful.
Conclusion:
Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the time to pull together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.
Related Questions & Answers:
What you have learned may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related. Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments. You may now be able to understand or verify things that you discovered when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to more questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need to be tested.
Possible Errors:
If you did not observe anything different than what happened with your control, the variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating. If you did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your series of experimental runs there may be experimental errors affecting your results. The first thing to check is how you are making your measurements. Is the measurement method questionable or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or maybe the measuring instrument is working erratically.
If you determine that experimental errors are influencing your results, carefully rethink the design of your experiments. Review each step of the procedure to find sources of potential errors. If possible, have a scientist review the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer of an experiment can miss the obvious.
