The Boy Who Caught Plastic With A Magnet
Can a magnet really pull plastic out of water?
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The story
Fionn Ferreira, eighteen, found sticky plastic-covered stones on the Irish coast and wondered whether the same stickiness could work for him. He mixed oil with magnetic powder to make ferrofluid, stirred it into water full of microplastics, and the plastic clung to the oily magnetic blobs. A magnet then pulled the whole mess out, removing about 87 percent.
What you'll learn
- Plastic and oil both avoid water, so they cling to each other.
- Ferrofluid is oil carrying tiny magnetic particles, so magnets can grab it.
- Fionn ran nearly a thousand tests to measure how well it worked.
- Kid takeaway: a strange thing you notice on a walk can be a real experiment.
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