Creating perm. magnet from scrap iron?

Interesting question. I know that iron becomes magnetized when it's molecules do, so I wouldn't think that repeated hammering and heating would help turn more of the molecules' polar direction. I'd guess, but could totally wrong, that the more densely packed the molecules, the stronger the magnetization will be.

I have other questions. They're basic and practical as I will be teaching elem school and am thinking about the curricular applications. I hoep you don't mind.

How hot does the iron need to be to allow for this kind of molecular fluidity?
Will dropping magnetized iron on a hard surface act like a hammer to demagnetize it?

im not sure, but you added another element to my question.

i dont know what the curie point is for iron though, if you heat it to the curie point im pretty sure it loses its magnetism, but if it is in a magnetic field they would be free to align anways.

My guess is that the hotter it is , the easier the molecules align.

I suspect your answer is not. You might create a magnet by heating and so forth, but you can also destroy it with. Maybe the temperature is critical for both destroying and creating.

Scrap iron is hard to to come by, though. I don't think scrap steel has much potential as a permanant magnet.

If you get a piece of metal you can turn it into a weak magnet by giving it a very hard and sharp blow with a hammer.
This causes some of the atoms to line up in the direction you hit it giving it a magnetic field in that direction.

Heating destroys magnets by giving the atoms so much energy that they jiggle around too much for their alignment to be maintained. So the magnetic field gets randomised and you're back to a bit of metal with no overall field.

If you heat up a bit of metal and then give it a good battering with a hammer you can make a better magnet.
All the atoms have a bit more energy because of the heat. This makes them easier to move with the hammer.
If you cool it down rapidly in a bucket of water after you've thumped it you can freeze in the directions of the atoms and make a stronger field.

This isn't going to be enough to make fridge magnets by the way but it can be enough to magnetise a needle in the field to make a compass that might just save your ass after that plane crash.

i was thinking heat up the metal as hot as it can get, then create a magnetic field , i guess i will try wrapping copper wire around it then running some eletricity through it.

And keep a current running until its cool.

would that do anything?

The best way to find out how well things like this do and don't work - is to try them. You can also induce some magnetism by running a current through the substance you want to magnetise.

If you run current through an iron object while you electromagnetize it, what does the field look like?

Don't know. Try it.

I HAVE ANOTHER question, when i magnetize the metal, which way would i have to set up positive and negative sides so that the metal would be magnetized along the earths magnetic field? doesnt make sense to try to magnetize it a different direction, i would be fighting the earths field.

i think that the magnetic field is 90 degrees to the electric field?
so i would have to decide whether to run it east west or north south im pretty sure, but then i need to find out which side to put the positive and negative contacts on the metal to align with the earths magnetic field.

lol, to wiki i go!

NEVERMIND EASY ENOUGH, NEGATIVE IS THE 'NORTH" POLE I THINK.

man magnetic fields are confusing me. not really but my mind is now offically tired