103 replies to this topic

[Slick_Rick9009]

It's even easier than all that filing and breaking and stuff... Pick up one and try to pick up the other. The one that will pick up the other is the magnet.

stick one rod to the other

What??!!?!?

So the two rods attract, yes, we know one is a magnet. The magnetic attraction between the rods is a function only of the distance between them and the power of the magnetic field. Holding the magnet will not increase it's energy flow and reveal it. If the magnet is strong enough to lift the rod off the table, it will also be strong enough to lift itself off the table when passing the rod over it!

I looked at the top post and thought the exact same thing. But after thinking I realized that if you try to pick up the one laying on the ground by the center then only the magnet with be able to if it's poles are at the ends. To make sure they are then you could simply hold one of the bars by it's very end with just two fingers very gently and move it along the other one without letting them touch. If the bar pulls toward the end then that's where the poles are. If it doesn't pull anywhere, switch bars. This could also be used as another solution in itself. Because, if you are holding the magnet then it will pull just as strongly no matter where it is in relation to the bar leying on the ground. If you are holding the non-magnet then it will pull more strongly when you are over the poles. Please correct me if I am wrong. But I am pretty sure this would work.

[Slick_Rick9009]

Also, to notalot, those answers weren't by the admin, those were the provided solutions when this puzzle was published. I could be wrong but I don't think he created this puzzle or those answers. (Note, that isn't sarcastic.)

[Garrek99]

That's not what the host was trying to say.

Suppose that this is your magnetized rod:

II
II
II
II

The poles can be towards the top and bottom and also the poles can be left to right.
So, imagine that all the "I"s on the left are negatively charged and all the "I"s on the right are positively charged. That would be a magnet whose poles run through its entire length.

[Mugsi]

Magnet - Back to the Logic Puzzles
This is a logic puzzle published in Martin Gardner's column in the Scientific American.
You are in a room where there are no metal objects except for two iron rods. Only one of them is a magnet.
How can you identify this magnet?

Spoiler for Solution

Magnet - solution
You can hang the iron rods on a string and watch which one turns to the north (or hang just one rod).
Gardner gives one more solution: take one rod and touch with its end the middle of the second rod. If they get closer, then you have a magnet in your hand.
The real magnet will have a magnetic field at its poles, but not at its center. So as previously mentioned, if you take the iron bar and touch its tip to the magnet's center, the iron bar will not be attracted. This is assuming that the magnet's poles are at its ends. If the poles run through the length of the magnet, then it would be much harder to use this method.
In that case, rotate one rod around its axis while holding an end of the other to its middle. If the rotating rod is the magnet, the force will fluctuate as the rod rotates. If the rotating rod is not magnetic, the force is constant (provided you can keep their positions steady).

Oh, i was watching an episode of Brainiac, and if you had some cereal, you could pour some milk into a bowl, (or any liquid) and then put one bit of cereal floating on the milk, then get the 2 rods, and hover them over the bit of cereal, whichever the bit of cereal responds to the rod that is the magnet, I probably phrased that badly, but you know what I mean. and it's because cereal has iron in it

[Argetlam42]

For iron to act as a magnet, it has to be electrified. So if you touch one and get zapped, that's the magnet.

[rubik]

If cereal has IRON in it, then it has METAL in it. So, you can't use it.

Then, humans have iron in them too (hemoglobin), so we can't be in the room either... so, NOW how do we figure this one out?!!?

Unless certain forms of metals don't count, like oxides (rust in this case) or complex molecules which happen to contain the atomic forms of transition metals (look up a periodic table)...

Since alot of puzzles on this site become debunked due to technicalities, then I hearby declare this one unsolvable, since humans contain iron. And the last time I checked, iron was a metal.

Done.

[JohnSantaFe]

Haven't seen this answer yet;

Rub your hands really fast over your hair to build up a charge. Hold the ends of each rod up to your hair. One of the ends should repel the hair. That's the magnet.

(This assumes humans are allowed and the human is not)

[Gwailo]

place one rod on the ground (horizontal) and hold the other a short distance away from it in a vertical position like this I _
if the rod on the ground spins (to line up with the rod you are holding) as you move the vertical rod then the rod on the ground is the magnet. If it does not spin then the rod you are holding is the magnet.

Try it with two nails and see.

[rjevans]

wouldnt both of them be magnetic since they are made out of iron lol wouldnt it

[Pinrelina]

Put one rod flat on the floor and spin it on its axis two or tree times. If it always stops pointing to the same direction, its a magnet (always points to the north pole). So the other is an iron. But if it points to random directions, its not a magnet, so the oter rod is.