Battle of The Giants | Testing extreme magnets

Extreme neodymium magnets are not toys! Do not handle magnets of the shown size until you know and accept the risks involved. The magnets have no safety features. Any human error will be punished hard and fast. How well does this massive neodymium magnet perform compared to my other giant magnets? Magnetportal donated it to my channel last year so it's about time we find out. The other magnets I've bought myself over the years. Will they be put to shame by the new magnet? I'll do some simple experiments I've used before. They are not exact, scientific tests - more improvised - but should give an indication of the forces from the different magnets. And as something new I will test them with a gaussmeter. Both at the surface and at 10 cm distance. Let's do it! First up is the saw bend test where I test from how far away the magnet will bend a saw blade 5 cm. Magnets do not like air gaps so the farther away, the much stronger the magnet. This 90x30 mm disc magnet is the smallest magnet in the competition. Which is absurd, since it is by no means a small magnet. 24 times larger than the largest I recommend to someone with no experiences in handling neo magnets. The magnet passes at a distance of 13.8 cm. Next up is a magnet of similar volume and grade. But another form factor. It will be interesting to follow these two smallest magnets in their own, individual competition. They've got the same volume and grade but this one - nicknamed the Monolith - is thinner with a larger pole surface. Here, it performs slightly worse and passes at 13.7 cm. Going up in size with a 100x30 mm disc magnet we are also seeing an increase in distance. It passes at 14.6 cm. Going further up in size the two Monoliths I put together into a single magnet in another video is interesting because it has the lowest grade of my largest neodymium magnets. Though the lower gauss reading isn't really an issue here where the magnet's sheer size gives it a respectable result of 15.9 cm. And speaking of sheer size... This 150x50 mm was my largest for many years. I didn't expect to ever call this monster my second largest but it's now a daunting reality. It's the first magnet to break the 20 cm mark. 20.1 to be precise. And now for the much larger 200x50 mm giant. Not surprisingly it sets a new record in the saw bend test. A solid 23.2 cm. I've got an outsider magnet as well in my biggest ferrite magnet. Ferrite magnets are no match to the forces in neo magnets but let's give it a go anyway. If nothing else for the giggles... Yeah... a failure so far... With a fridge magnet like this I don't mind using a thinner spacer. Let's see if we can get a result now. Alright, the magnet and saw are so close after the full bend that they stick a little. But it has to be as close as 8.6 cm before passing the test. Not impressive for its size but hey... It's almost seven times cheaper than the cheapest of the neo magnets. The conclusion of the saw bend test is that volume is king when you want a magnet to work on a large object at distance. The thicker and bigger, the better the result. Grade is not as important. The lower grade N38 magnet did well here. But don't go as low in grade as a ferrite... Next up is the inverse compass test. It's also a distance test and shows at what distance the magnetic field from the magnet is stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth. For me, this is a good indication of the safety distance. Keep electronics far enough away from the magnet that the Earth's magnetic field is the strongest and your electronics should be fine. Let's set some records! It may look short on camera but an average Dane can easily fit in between the magnet and compass. That's a wide magnetic field! With the ferrite magnet lagging behind again the inverse compass test has confirmed the conclusion from the saw bend test. If you want to work at a distance with a magnet, you need a big magnet. A bigger magnet has a longer throw so to speak. At distance, grade isn't as important as long as you use a magnet of the neodymium type. Let's switch to a completely different test. Working on a small object directly at the surface of the magnet. I'll measure the magnets pull force on this tiny paper clip. It only weighs 410 milligrams so the magnets need to have an intense magnetic field to firmly hold on to the paper clip. Is size still the most important factor? The 90x30 mm disc has a strong start. Max 350 g pull force on a 0.4 g paper clip. I'm impressed! The thinner block magnet of the same volume and grade is struggling more. The highest it scored was just below 300 g. With it being thinner, there's simply not enough magnet under the small paper clip to generate the same pull force. Going back to a 30 mm thick magnet we are seeing a high pull force again. 365 g in its best attempt. So will the 39 mm thick double Monolith do even better? Not at all. It has a lower grade and therefore a less intense magnetic field. Despite being my third largest and thickest magnet it only scores 290 g here. How about the much larger 150x50? Hmmm? At 373 g, the pull force is not much higher than from the 100x30. Did we finally reach the limit where the paper clip is magnetically saturated? The first tests with the 200x50 magnet seemed to confirm that we have reached the limit for such a small paper clip. Then this happened... Just shy of 400 g pull force on a 0.4 g paper clip. New record! The ferrite magnet doesn't stand a chance here, where grade is the key factor. The conclusion is clear. Working on a small object at the surface grade is more important than size. The big N38 magnet didn't do well here and notice how little gain there is in going up in volume with magnets of the same grade. Just buy a not too thin N52 magnet if you want to feel the power of a neo magnet on a paper clip. The final test is with the gaussmeter. How high a gauss reading can I find on the magnets at surface and at 10 cm distance? On large magnets the highest surface readings are at the very edge of the magnet as shown here with the 90x30. Let's quickly go through the highest I found on the different magnets. Nice... this is the first time my gaussmeter reads above 1 tesla! Okay? I was expecting to see a clear link between the gauss reading at surface and the paper clip test. But it's not a perfect match. The lower grade magnets are doing better than expected. With the ferrite magnet being closer to the neodymium magnets and the N38 double magnet having a higher reading than the half as thick but higher graded single magnet. A gauss reading at a very tiny spot on the magnet doesn't seem very useful for determining the overall performance of the magnet. Let's try at 10 cm distance where the highest reading is above the center of the magnet. All right, the 10 cm test ends up with the same ranking as the saw bend test. Still, I wouldn't replace a practical test with a gaussmeter to know the overall strength of a magnet. For that you need a more expensive fluxmeter - not a gaussmeter. But practical tests are more fun... Hope you enjoyed this comparison of my largest magnets. Overall, the giant 200x50 won in all tests and is the clear winner. Bigger is better but it's not always worth the extra cost. Depends on what you need the magnet for. Alright, it took A LOT of hours to make this video. Hope you have a second to click the thumbs up button in return. And please consider clicking the notification bell too. Subscribing is apparently no longer enough to be notified of my next upload... Thanks for watching! Much more to come. And who knows, maybe some new records in future videos? Bye for now!

Channel: Brainiac75

Views: 210,603

Keywords: magnet, neodymium, neodym, ferrite, ceramic, comparison, test, experiment, pull force, big, large, fun, interesting, educational, gaussmeter, gauss, tesla, compass, saw, paper clip, grade, n45, n45sh, n38, n38sh, y35

Id: IifqNtd7aes

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 01 2018