The National MagLab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.
These demonstrations about laws and tools associated with electricity and magnetism allow you to adjust variables at and to visualize invisible forces — which makes them almost better than the real thing.
Seeing is believing. In these animations, we show you what electricity and magnetism might look like if they weren't invisible.
Learn about electricity and magnetism — and have some fun while you're at it!
How do Maglev trains work? What are comets made of? How do bugs walk on water? This section demonstrates these and other concepts related to magnetism, electricity and other areas of science.
Whether you prefer your science short & sweet or long & detailed, we spell it out for you here in easy-to-understand language.
Read fun science stories told in comic strip style.
There is beauty and art in science. Gaze on these stories of discoveries that could be featured on museum walls instead of scientific journals.
Explore these surprising, unconventional and sometimes downright strange stories about high magnetic field research.
These special science graphics explain science stories in digestible steps and include optional detours for readers wanting more background to customize your reading journey.
Get to know these pioneers who went down in history for their groundbreaking work, including scientists behind common terms such as Amp, Celsius, Kelvin, hertz and tesla.
From the world's first compass to the magnetic force microscope and beyond, explore a variety of instruments, tools and machines throughout history.
Our timeline takes you through the highlights of electricity and magnetism and across the centuries.
Take a field trip to these high magnetic field landmarks around the globe.
Every time you plug something into the electricity in your house, you are utilizing the power of alternating current (AC.)
Arc lamps were the first type of electric light, so brilliant the lamps were used for lighthouses and street lights.
The Barkhausen effect makes the concept of magnetic domains audible.
This tutorial takes a shot at explaining how circuits can be used to measure things beyond the capacity of human senses.
A capacitor is similar to a battery, but a few key differences make them crucial additions to many machines.
Discover how cathode rays behave in a magnetic field.
For decades, the Cathode Ray Tube was used for video displays from televisions to computer screens.
The invention of the magnetic compass radically changed the way humans navigated from place to place. Travelers could orient themselves even when the …
This device demonstrates how parallel wires attract because of the magnetic fields they generate.
This tutorial illustrates the flow of electricity through a circuit and how that flow is impacted by resistors in the circuit.
English chemist John Frederick Daniell came up with a twist on the simple voltaic cell.
This simple direct current (DC) motor has been created by pairing a permanent magnet and an electromagnet. The permanent magnet is called a stator bec…
The magnets here at the lab generate massive amounts of heat. To cool them off, we need massive amounts of water. But first, we have to take the ions …
Certain metals exhibit a strong response to a magnetic field. But everything reacts to magnetic fields in some way.
The newest electric meters rely on different techniques to measure usage. But power to many homes and businesses is still monitored by traditional met…
When a permanent magnet is moved inside of a copper wire coil, electrical current flows inside of the wire. This important physics phenomenon is calle…
Electromotive Force is an important phenomenon that impacts the way electrons flow through a conductor.
Though simple by today's standards, the early electrostatic generators were a great milestone in humankind's understanding of electricity.
A fun way to illustrate electrostatic forces from a Van de Graaff generator.
Just a year after electromagnetism was discovered, the great scientist Michael Faraday figured out how to turn it into motion.
Out of a humble ice pail the great experimentalist Michael Faraday created a device to demonstrate key principles of attraction, repulsion and electro…
In 1855, a French physicist created a device that illustrated how eddy currents work.
A galvanometer detects and measures small amounts of current in an electrical circuit.
This simple device transforms the mechanical energy of the vibrating guitar strings into electrical energy.
When a magnetic field is applied to a flowing current, it creates a weak but measurable voltage. This is the Hall effect.
Metals conduct electricity because their atoms have free electrons that can move between them. As those free electrons move through the metal conducto…
Start your engines and learn about the ignition coil, a key to operating your car.
Get the swing of electromagnetic induction with this device.
Like resistance, reactance slows down an electrical current. This phenomenon occurs only in AC circuits.
The legendary Lord Kelvin made electricity from water with his water dropper.
Sir Oliver Lodge's experiment demonstrating the first tunable radio receiver was an important stepping stone on the path toward the invention of a pra…
A wire fashioned into a pendulum moves inside a magnetic field, demonstrating the Lorentz force.
Magnetic core memory was developed in the late 1940s and 1950s, and remained the primary way in which early computers read, wrote and stored data unti…
Why can some materials be turned into magnets? It’s all thanks to magnetic domains.
Whenever current travels through a conductor, a magnetic field is generated.
You can create a stronger, more concentrated magnetic field by taking wire and forming it into a coil called a solenoid.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, commonly known as MRIs, are awesome diagnostic tools for medical applications and research. Relying on strong sup…
Magnetic shunts are often used to adjust the amount of flux in the magnetic circuits found in most electrical motors.
Mass spectrum reveals how many isotopes of a given element are to be found in a material.
Mass spectrometers are instruments that give scientists insight into the composition of complex materials. These spectrometers can analyze materials a…
Mass spectrometers are instruments that give scientists information on the composition of a material. Mass spectrometers can pick apart complex substa…
How does a microwave heat your food? Water interacting with high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism in this very simple experiment.
A pair of parallel wires serves to illustrate a principle that French scientist André-Marie Ampère was the first to comprehend.
This “magneto-electric machine” was the first to turn motion into electricity.
The simple electrical cell explained here is the most basic type of "wet" cell and demonstrates the fundamental chemistry behind batteries.
Two heads — or even three — are better than one when it comes to understanding how tape recorders harness electromagnetic induction.
Transformers are devices that transfer a voltage from one circuit to another circuit via induction.
Electricity goes through some ups and downs on its way from the power plant to your house. Here's how it works.
The Van de Graaff generator is a popular tool for teaching the principles of electrostatics. You might remember it as the thing that made your hair st…
Italian scientist Alessandro Volta was the first to recognize key principles of electrochemistry, and applied those principles to the creation of the …
This circuit is most commonly used to determine the value of an unknown resistance to an electrical current.
