written by Jalves Figueira

This experiment explores the behavior of a pair of loosely coupled compass needles in air with weak damping. The needles are far enough apart that the magnetic interaction between their magnetic dipoles is much weaker than their interaction with the Earth's magnetic field. The resulting motion displays beats--when one compass is momentarily at rest, the other oscillates with maximum amplitude.

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Published June 23, 2014
Last Modified June 23, 2014