Yay for more TV info! Once again, I was watching the science channel and the show "How It's Made". On today's segment they covered magnets! I always wondered how they created magnets, because I've always wondered why more things aren't magnetic. As it turns out, the reason why is because in order to make a magnet, a very strong electric ...ummm....machine...electric difference...thing is needed...yeah. I'll explain it more later. But anyway, a compressed sand mold is made and a soup of different elements and metals including iron, sulphur, cadmium, etc. are poured into the mold. Once the metals have cooled, they form the nice shapes shown in the picture. However, they are still unmagnetized. These metal shapes are taken to a large machine that produces a very high difference of charges, one side positive, the other negative. By placing the positive and negative ends of the magnet on the opposite sides (In other words, the eventually positive side goes on the negative part of the machine and vice versa) and turning the machine on, the charge aligns the opposite charge to the different poles of the magnet. The side connected to the negative part of the machine becomes highly positive and vice versa. The same thing basically occurs when you put a magnet into a re-magnetizer. Though its odd that something would need to be re-magnetized considering that magnets last for about 300 years...according to the movie "Wild Wild West" with Will Smith.
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