RADIATORS ARE MAGNETS? Surprising Effect and Direction of the Earth's Magnetic Field

Hi! If you place a piece of iron near a magnet the iron get magnetized and can turn into a magnet itself. This is called ferromagnetism. Named after iron. So what about radiators made of iron placed in the Earth's magnetic field? Shouldn't they be magnetized too? Turn into magnets that reveal the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. A direction that can be surprising depending on where on our planet you live. Let's find out. No monster magnets this time despite measuring the largest magnet on Earth. Only mind... uhm... how hot a radiator can get. First off, I would like to do a check-up of the Earth's magnetic field at my place and compare it to the recently updated World Magnetic Model 2025 edition. I have already done this earlier, back in December 2018 where I compared my measurements to the now 10 years older 2015 edition of the WMM. Has the magnetic field changed in 10 years at my home in a detectable amount? And does it match the WMM? Let's give it a try. I will measure in the same corner of my kitchen as back in 2018. Far away from my huge neodymium magnets and any big speaker magnets. If I point the probe due north with its label and X-mark pointing up and keep it perfectly level I will measure the horizontal component of Earth's magnetic field on the Z-axis and the vertical component on the X-axis. All I have to do is get the Y-axis to reach zero. Then I know the probe is pointing due north. There we are. Hmm... not the most stable reading. Especially the Z-axis is pulsing. Almost as if the vibrations of my pulse is affecting the measurement. The stand is actually a little wobbly since it has no metal in it. Let me replace myself with a brick to see if it stabilizes the result. It sure does. Good brick! Ignoring the 0.1 microtesla on the Y-axis I measure around 17.7 microtesla on the horizontal axis and 47.9 microtesla on the vertical axis. Giving a total magnetic field strength of 51.1 microtesla after some vector calculations. These readings are very close to the ones from 2018. Max 1.5 microtesla off. Probably within the error margins of my sloppy setup in 2018. But if I have to predict a trend from only two readings with 6 years between them then the Earth's magnetic field is getting stronger and more vertical at my place. Yes, vertical! Let me find the exact direction of the magnetic field now. By getting both the X- and Y-axis to a zero reading I know the probe is not only pointing north. It is also parallel with the magnetic field lines pointing in the exact direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Look at that! It is almost pointing straight into Earth. More about why that is in my earlier video. But here in Denmark I basically live on top of a magnetic pole. I will use this electronic gadget to measure the inclination of the magnetic field. Unfortunately, it has some strong built-in magnets that will mess up the readings. But I am only interested in the inclination in this case. I tried a couple of times and it seems to be around 69.8 to 69.9 degrees. Okay, are my measurements in line with the world magnetic model? After scrutinizing the charts I'd say they are pretty close. Max 0.8 microtesla off. Nice, but not perfect. Could simply be because the WMM does not account for local variations. And let's be honest... My home is one big magnetic anomaly. With all of the extreme neodymium magnets I have inside my house I really should measure outside. But you know... Weather. The Danish wet weather does not match well with 230V electronics. The Earth's magnetic field should not be measured inside even a normal home near speaker magnets, electronic appliances, plumbing, wires, perhaps even rebars, etc. You may have noticed a big metal object in the area I am measuring in. Only 1.5 meter away is a large, iron-rich steel object. A radiator. Surely this is interacting with the Earth's magnetic field? But in which way? I will measure on it right after this short message. A big, big thanks to all my patrons. Thank you so much for helping out. It's really appreciated and important for a niche channel with monthly quality uploads like mine. For just a dollar a month you can help me out too and get full access to all my posts on patreon.com. Link to my Patreon page in the description. Thank you! Since the magnetic field from the Earth is mostly vertical in my home I would expect my radiators to be magnetized by it with a south pole on their top and a north pole on their bottom. Is that the case for this radiator? To recognize the north pole from a south pole I will first test on the magnet in a compass. If I point the X on the probe towards a north pole it results in a plus reading on the X-axis. If I instead point the X towards a south pole it shows as a minus reading. OK, plus means north pole and minus a south pole when I put the X-marking on a magnet. Is the radiator magnetized? I will place the X on it. Oh yes! Something is going on. It measures 680 microtesla on the radiator. 760 closer to the corner. 15 times stronger than the Earth's field. And it is a minus reading on the X-axis. A magnetic south pole on top of the radiator. How about the bottom part? Nice! A north pole around 10 times stronger than from the Earth alone. Not a strong magnet. But at 10 to 15 times the geomagnetism the radiator must be a magnet in itself. Let's confirm the polarity at its other end. Oh... A weak north pole on the top. And a north pole on the bottom as well. Hmm... Maybe this radiator isn't a clear-cut example. My house is not placed perfectly north-south and this radiator is mostly going from east to west. Maybe I should try one that is placed more north-south. How does this bigger radiator measure? On the southern end it is a south pole on top. At 1600 microtesla, 1.6 militesla it is over 30 times stronger than the geomagnetism. Not bad. Definitely a magnet in itself. Still not strong though. On the bottom it is also a south pole. Not really following my logic of being vertically magnetized by the Earth. On its northern end it has a strong north pole on top and a weak mess of north and south poles on the bottom. In hindsight, I think the inflow pipe is messing things up at this end. But overall, this radiator seems to be mostly magnetized horizontally. With a strong south pole at its cold southernmost end and a little weaker, messier north pole at its warm northernmost end with the inflow pipe. I think there are two reasons for its more horizontal magnetic field being generated from the mostly vertical field from the Earth. First off, it is oriented more north-south than the first radiator giving the horizontal components of the geomagnetism more length to work with than the vertical components. And secondly, as I have demonstrated in an earlier video with dramatic results magnetic fields prefer to magnetize objects along their longest axis. So to have a vertically magnetized radiator at my place it likely needs to be a vertical model. Higher than it is long. I don't have such one but let's pretend this steel piece is a vertical radiator. South pole on top. Check. North pole on bottom. Check. What if I flip the piece around? Still a south pole on the top part. That was the north pole on the bottom just a moment ago. And still a north pole on the bottom. Nice! The Earth's magnetic field is doing its job and magnetizes this vertically. I now feel more confident in calling it. Near equator, where the Earth's magnetic field is mostly horizontal all iron-rich radiators will be magnetized with a north pole on their north-facing part and a south pole on their south-facing part. Near the geographic north pole with a vertical geomagnetism all radiators will be magnetized with a south pole on their top and a north pole on their bottom. Near the geographic south pole it is opposite. In places between equator and the poles it gets more messy. It depends on how vertical or horizontal the Earth's magnetic field is. If the radiator is a vertical or horizontal model and if it is placed mostly north-south or east-west. Now, if you have a smartphone with a digital compass you can perform all tests in this video yourself with decent precision. I have a video about it. How and how much are the radiators in your home magnetized? Hope you liked this video enough to click like and perhaps subscribe for more like it. In any case, thanks for watching. Bye for now!