Message-Id: <v01540b18b13c98fb26e0@[192.174.2.173]>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 15:01:50 -0800
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: pauld@exploratorium.edu (Paul Doherty)
Subject: Re: Re: Pinhole Daily Digest
One of the activities we suggest is to collect magnetite particles from
sand. Ocean beach is particularly rich, but most local sand has some. We
place the magnet inside a closed plastic bag so that the particles remain
outside. At the end of the collecting period we simply turn the bag inside
out so that the magnet is oute and the particles inside. What ways do your
students come up with?
If you collect particles with a magnet from the gutter of a house or a
street, a good fraction of the particles (<10%) will be from meteors. Iron
meteors heated in their fall through the atmosphere shed particles of
iron-oxide i.e. magnetite. Which you can collect.