Finding Iron in Your Cereal
Materials:
- 1 bowl of iron fortified cereal
- 1 powerful bar magnet
- 1 zip lock bag
- ½ cup of milk
- ½ cup of water
Instructions:
1. Take half of the cereal in the bowl and mash it up in a separate container. You can use your hands, a spoon, or a mortar and pestle. Try go get a good amount of powdery cereal.
2. Put a bit of the milk into the container. Not too much. You want to wet the cereal just enough so it has a thick but still liquid consistency (oatmeal like.) Stir this thick liquid with a spoon, making sure that everything mixes well together.
3. Stick the magnet into the container and move it around. Pull the magnet out! What do you see? You should see that the magnet is now covered with iron fillings, which is what they put into iron fortified cereal!
4. Next, take the rest of the cereal and mash it up the same way you did the first batch.
5. This time, mix the cereal with some water, also making the oatmeal like consistency. Place this
into your zip lock bag. Seal the bag.
6. Use your magnet on the outside of the zip lock bag to attract the iron fillings in the cereal. Wherever you move your magnet, the iron fillings will appear and follow the pattern you make.
You were able to separate a part of the iron with your magnet because iron is a ferromagnetic material. The principle of attracting iron fillings seen here is the same principle used by companies that make slates or re‐writable sketch boards with a magnetic pen.
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