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Measuring the magnetization of a permanent magnet

Article  in  American Journal of Physics · April 2019

DOI: 10.1119/1.5092452

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Measuring the magnetization of a permanent magnet
B. Barman, and A. Petrou

Citation: American Journal of Physics 87, 275 (2019); doi: 10.1119/1.5092452

View online: https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5092452
View Table of Contents: https://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/87/4
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
Measuring the magnetization of a permanent magnet
B. Barman
Department of Computer Science, Engineering and Physics, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint,
Michigan 48502
A. Petrou
Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260
(Received 1 July 2018; accepted 10 February 2019)
The effect of an external magnetic field B on magnetic materials is a subject of immense
importance. The simplest and oldest manifestation of such effects is the behavior of the
magnetic compass. Magnetization M plays a key role in studying the response of magnetic
materials to B. In this paper, an experimental technique for the determination of M of a
permanent magnet will be presented. The proposed method discusses the effect of B (produced
by a pair of Helmholtz coils) on a permanent magnet, suspended by two strings and allowed to
oscillate under the influence of the torque that the magnetic field exerts on the magnet.
The arrangement used Newton’s second law for rotational motion to measure M via graphical analysis.
C 2019 American Association of Physics Teachers.
V
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5092452

I. INTRODUCTION of the loop.1,5–7 The magnitude l is given by the following

equation:
Magnetism has been intriguing mankind for centuries
now. A magnet’s ability to influence magnetic materials, l ¼ iA: (1)
from a distance, mesmerized numerous inquisitive minds of
the past. The magnetic compass, used across all continents, If we place this loop in a uniform magnetic field B ~ at an
is such a device, acting under the influence of Earth’s mag- angle h with ~l , as shown in Fig. 1(a), we have a torque act-
netic field.1 With the advancement of science, particularly ing on the loop whose magnitude s is given by the following
after the discovery of the atomic model, magnetism at the equation:
microscopic scale came to the fore. Hans-Christian Oersted’s
discovery of a current-carrying wire producing a magnetic s ¼ lB sin h: (2)
field added a whole new dimension, leading to the advent of
a technological revolution in the field of electromagnetism.2 If the loop is allowed to move, it will rotate under the action
With the exploration of newer magnetic materials, exhibiting of the torque in such a way that ~l becomes parallel with the
magnetic field B,~ as shown in Fig. 1(b). Indeed, in the config-
paramagnetism, ferromagnetism, and diamagnetism, it
became essential to develop techniques to measure magneti- uration of Fig. 1(b), we have that h ¼ 0 for which Eq. (2)
zation in these. While many experimental methods have shows that s ¼ 0 and all movement stops. Thus, the mag-
been proposed, along with the existence of high tech equip- netic moment is defined so that the torque exerted on a cur-
ment for research, a basic design requirement for educational rent carrying loop, when placed in an external magnetic
purposes has eluded us so far.3,4 In this paper, we present an field, is proportional to l.8
experimental technique to determine the magnetization of a
permanent magnet using readily available lab instruments B. Magnetization
namely as a pair of Helmholtz coils, an ammeter, a power For our experimental discussion, we consider a cylindrical
supply, and a stopwatch. While this technique is applicable permanent magnet (composed of iron atoms) of radius R and
for both introductory physics (calculus and algebra based) and height l, as shown in Fig. 2. In each atom, its electrons move
undergraduate Physics/Engineering majors, the extent of around the nucleus on orbits similar to that shown in Fig. 1.
exploration rests with the instructor. As a quick in-class Thus, each iron atom behaves like a microscopic loop with
demo, an introductory class can observe the effect of an exter- magnetic moment ~ l Fe . In iron and other ferromagnetic mate-
nal magnetic field on the oscillation period of a permanent rials, all the magnetic moment vectors are aligned and the
magnet without determining any value of magnetization. In net magnetic moment l of the magnet is equal to NlFe ,
an advanced lab setting, students can explore numerical val- where N is the number of iron atoms in the magnet. The
ues of magnetization of the four types of permanent magnets, magnetization M of the magnet, with a volume V is defined
viz., neodymium iron boron (NdFeB), samarium cobalt as5,9
(SmCo), alnico, and ceramic or ferrite magnets.

II. THEORY
A. Magnetic moment
It is well known that in a wire loop with area A, in which a
current i is flowing, we define a vector known as the Fig. 1. (a) Magnetic moment of a current carrying loop at an angle h with
“magnetic moment” (symbol ~ l ), perpendicular to the plane ~ and (b) ~
respect to B ~
l k B.

275 Am. J. Phys. 87 (4), April 2019 http://aapt.org/ajp C 2019 American Association of Physics Teachers
V 275
 Fig. 2. Cylindrical permanent magnet of radius R and height l.

l Fig. 3. Helmholtz coils of diameter D, consisting of N turns. Image copyright:

M¼ : (3) https://www.emworks.com/application/numerical-simulation-of-helmholtz-coil.
V
For the cylindrical magnet of Fig. 2, the volume is given by
the following equation:

V ¼ pR2 l: (4)

C. Magnetic field at the center of a pair of Helmholtz

coils
The schematic of a pair of Helmholtz coils is shown in
Fig. 3. Each has a diameter D and consists of N turns of
wire. They are positioned so that they have a common axis,
and the distance between the coil centers is adjusted so that
it is equal to half the diameter D. Under these conditions, the
Helmholtz coils generate a magnetic field along the common Fig. 4. Cylindrical permanent magnet suspended from strings.
axis of the coils, which is uniform in the vicinity of the mid-
point between the coil centers. The magnetic field B is given
by the following equation:10,11
16l0 Ni
B ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi: (5)
D 125

Here, the current i is measured in Amps, B is measured in

tesla, D ¼ 0:21 m, N ¼ 119, and l0 is a constant equal to
1:256  106 T:m=A.

III. DISCUSSION: OSCILLATION OF A MAGNET IN

A MAGNETIC FIELD
A permanent magnet is suspended, in a stirrup like Fig. 5. Top view of the cylindrical magnet oscillating between the
Helmholtz coils.
arrangement (Fig. 4), so that the magnet points in the

Fig. 6. Pictorial representation of the experimental set-up. (a) Schematic and (b) actual working rendition.

276 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 4, April 2019 B. Barman and A. Petrou 276
north-south direction. The magnetic field B~ generated by the Table I. Summary of the experimental parameters as well as the calculated
Helmholtz coils is in the same direction such that the Earth’s value of M.
magnetic field does not influence our measurement of mag-
m (kg) R (m) l (m) l (kg m2) lðA m2 Þ MðA m1 Þ
netization. This is an important criterion which has to be
kept in consideration while performing this experiment. If 0.0511 0.0046 0.125 6:681  105 3.047 ð3761:2Þ  104
we now consider Fig. 5, which is a top view of Fig. 4, dis-
place the magnet by a small angle /0 from the direction of
~ and release it from rest, the magnet will oscillate around
B, between the centers of the coils. Hence, the choice of length
the equilibrium position as indicated by the curved arrows for the permanent magnet is paramount to determining M
shown in Fig. 5. The time it takes for the magnet to swing precisely. More significantly, the distance between the coils
from left to right and back to the starting position is called should be equal to the radius in order to achieve this unifor-
the period of oscillation (symbol T). By applying Newton’s mity.13,14 The period of 10 oscillations was measured as a
second law of rotational motion, we can write (using the function of the current in the Helmholtz coils; the resulting
small angle approximation) data were linearized using Eq. (9) and plotted. A least-
squares fit was used to plot the data as shown in Fig. 7. In
d2 / order to improve the accuracy of these measurements, it is
s¼I ¼ C/ þ lB sin /  ½C þ lB/; (6)
dt2 important that the permanent magnet oscillates in a horizon-
tal plane, keeping the small-angle approximation in mind.
where / is the angle that the magnet axis forms with B ~ at
Any vertical mode of oscillation would introduce a consider-
any instant of time t. Here, C is the torsional constant that able amount of error in the measurement of the magnetiza-
describes the mechanical properties of the supporting strings tion. Vernier calipers were used to measure the radius R and
and l is the magnetic moment of the magnet. I is the moment the length ‘ of the magnet, while a balance was used to mea-
of inertia (in our configuration) of the cylindrical magnet of sure the mass m of the magnet in kilograms.
mass m and is given by the following equation:12
1 2 1 V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
I¼ ml þ mR2 : (7)
12 4 The experimental data were plotted with B on the x-axis
and ð2p=T Þ2 on the y-axis as shown in Fig. 7 followed by
The solution to the 2nd order differential equation in / is modeling using Eq. (9) to calculate the magnetic moment l.
given by Having determined the slope (and the corresponding mag-
  netic moment l), together with volume V, we were able to
2p determine the magnetization M of the magnet. We have sum-
/ ¼ /0 cos t : (8)
T marized our experimental parameters as well as the calcu-
lated value of M in Table I. While the slope accounted for an
The quantity 2p=T is given by the following equation, which uncertainty of 3%, the measurement of the moment of inertia
follows from Eqs. (6) and (8): carried an uncertainty of 0.25%. Thus, the overall uncer-
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi tainty (3%) in M is attributed approximately to the uncer-
2p C þ lB tainty in the slope (3%), resulting from the non-uniformity of
¼ : (9)
T I the magnetic field produced by the pair of Helmholtz coils
over the physical dimensions of the permanent magnet.
Upon knowing the composition (if it is an alloy) of the per-
IV. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE manent magnet, one could compare it with certain known
values of M reported in numerous textbooks as well as hand-
A pictorial (schematic and actual) representation of the books of physical parameters.7,15 Our experimentally deter-
experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 6. The permanent mag- mined value of M indicates it to be a Mn ferrite alloy
net shown in Fig. 4 has been exaggerated to show the details (saturation magnetization 39  104 A:m1 ) as reported in
of the experimental arrangement, while it is well known that Ref. 7.
the magnetic field is uniform only within a very small region
VI. CONCLUSION
We described a simple and cost-effective way of measur-
ing the magnetization of a permanent magnet in an under-
graduate laboratory setting suitable for both introductory
classes and undergraduate physics majors. We used
Newton’s second law for rotational motion and verified the
validity of our equations by performing an experiment using
a cylindrical magnet suspended between a pair of Helmholtz
coils. We also showed the data analysis technique, via graph-
ical representation, required to calculate the value of the
magnetization for a particular specimen.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 7. Plot of ð2p=T Þ2 as a function of B. This work was supported by NSF DMR-1305770.

277 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 4, April 2019 B. Barman and A. Petrou 277
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278 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 87, No. 4, April 2019 B. Barman and A. Petrou 278

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