Feature

Ferrofluid, the liquid magnet

Posted by Keith on July 9, 2003 to Hurm News

Someone I work with recently shared the existance of ferrofluid to the rest of us. A site called Dan's Data describes it thusly:
It's a colloidal suspension of minuscule (roughly ten nanometre) magnetite particles in a liquid base. In English, that means it's magnetic liquid.

Dan's also mentions "[i]n the absence of a magnetic field, this Ferrotec EFH1 ferrofluid looks like rather runny black machine oil." When you wave a magnet around this liquid, it reacts by getting all spikey. It's still liquid, but it reacts in a way that would make you think it's a solid.

Dan's site has a 986kb MPG movie you can watch, and you can buy some for about 30 bucks at Educational Innovations Inc.

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Read Comments (4)

Jonathan commented at 2:17 AM on July 12, 2003:

Thas some cool shiat!

Nobody commented at 9:19 AM on July 12, 2003:

No doubt! Although I have no specific need for such a magnet, I can't help but think that I need to get me some! :D

Someone commented at 5:24 PM on January 14, 2004:

Its really cool i`ve seen it

Luke commented at 1:06 AM on April 15, 2004:

Interesting, but is the liquid itself a magnet?

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