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A fridge magnet, a handful of steel paper clips and a cheap compass are enough for an afternoon of real physics. NCERT's Class 6 chapter Exploring Magnets asks children to write a prediction before testing anything, and every activity below works the same way: guess, test, explain.
What do you need for simple magnet experiments at home?
Two flat, bendy fridge magnets, plus a bar magnet if you have one
Ten to twenty steel paper clips
A small magnetic compass
Cardboard, a plastic plate, a thin wooden board and a glass of water
A steel spoon, aluminium foil, a pencil, an eraser and a brass key
Use only magnets too big to fit in a child's mouth.
Which magnet experiments can kids try at home?
Experiment 1: Magnet or not? The sorting game
Ask your child to sort the household objects into “will stick” and “won't stick” piles, then test each with the fridge magnet. If your child expects every metal to stick, the foil and the brass key will be the surprises.
What it shows: only some materials are magnetic. The NCERT chapter names iron, nickel and cobalt as magnetic, and calls materials a magnet does not attract non-magnetic materials.
Experiment 2: How long can the paper clip chain get?
Hang one clip from the magnet, touch a second clip to its bottom, and keep adding until the chain drops. Then hold the bottom clip and slide the top clip off the magnet.
What it shows: a clip touching a magnet acts like a weak magnet itself, so it holds the next clip. Take the magnet away and most of that pull goes.
Experiment 3: Can a magnet work through things?
Put a clip on cardboard and move the magnet underneath; the clip follows. Try a plastic plate, then a thin wooden board. Last, drop a clip into a glass of water and drag it up and out with the magnet held outside the glass, a trick the NCERT chapter also shows. If the fridge magnet is too weak, use the bar magnet.
What it shows: the pull passes through cardboard, plastic, wood and glass. The NCERT chapter concludes that “the magnetic effect can act through non-magnetic materials”.
Experiment 4: Why does a fridge magnet feel bumpy?
Put two fridge magnets together sticky side to sticky side and slide one slowly across the other. It catches and slips.
What it shows: a fridge magnet is not one north and one south pole. Its sticky side has stripes of alternating poles, so sliding two together makes them alternately repel and attract every few millimetres (Wikipedia: Refrigerator magnet). The pole-to-pole distance is about 5 mm, varying by manufacturer, the same article says. It is the textbook rule in action: unlike poles attract and like poles repel (NCERT).
Experiment 5: Make the compass needle swing
Let the compass settle on a table away from steel, then bring the magnet close, then a paper clip, then a pencil.
What it shows: the needle is a small magnet that turns freely. A freely suspended magnet rests along the north-south direction “because our Earth itself behaves like a giant magnet”, the NCERT chapter explains. The magnet drags the needle off course, the clip may nudge it, the pencil does nothing.
For a follow-up, try making a compass with a needle and water.
What questions should you ask young children during magnet experiments?
Ask three questions every time:
Before: “What do you think will happen? Why?” Write the guess down, or let a younger child draw it.
During: “What did you see? Was it what you guessed?”
After: “Why do you think that happened? How could we check?”
Then add one per activity:
Sorting: “What is the same about everything that stuck?”
Chain: “Why did the clips fall when the top one left the magnet?”
Through things: “Which material should we test next?”
Bumpy magnets: “Why does it feel like tiny steps?”
Compass: “Why does the needle come back when the magnet goes away?”
When a guess is wrong, say “Let's test it” and let the result do the talking.
If an older sibling wants to go further, the Fermi Simulation Lab has interactive simulations for ideas that are easier to see than to read, and our explainer on why magnetic field lines form closed loops covers the Class 10 picture.
Are magnet experiments safe for young children?
Fridge magnets, bar magnets and compasses are fine with an adult present. The danger is small, powerful magnets such as desk-toy balls. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that two or more swallowed magnets can attract each other inside the body, causing small holes in the stomach and intestines, intestinal blockage, blood poisoning and even death (CPSC). KidsHealth New Zealand advises going to the nearest hospital immediately if a child swallows magnets (KidsHealth NZ).
Count the clips and magnets before and after.
Keep small powerful magnets locked away.
Keep magnets away from mobile phones and remote controls, as the NCERT chapter advises.
Next, try our balloon static electricity experiments for a different invisible force.
