LSOP: Invisible Forces, March 5, 2021
By request from a local school: Invisible Forces! You can’t see gravity—but you can certainly see its effects. And it works at a distance—you don’t need to be in contact with the earth to feel its pull. We say that the earth has a gravitational field around it—and if you are in the field, you feel the force. In this episode, we explore three forces that have associated fields: gravity, electric forces, and magnetic forces. We show you how to levitate something with electric and magnetic fields, and answer some questions: Can you block a magnetic field? How about an electric field? Can you feel a magnetic field? You know how to use iron filings to visualize a magnetic field—but can you do something like this with an electric field? As always, everything we do will be something you can try at home and in the classroom.
