Magnets, the Inverse Cube Law

Last week I received another purchase from Kickstarter in the mail: my Polar Pen.

If I remember correctly, I read about the Polar Pen Kickstarter on iO9 or Gizmodo.  They linked to the sales pitch video, and I was hooked.

I had missed out on Buckyballs, since they were alarmistly forced from the market in the US, and out of business.  I had put off buying them, thinking they would be available for a long time because they were so popular.  I was even leaning towards the Buckycubes, but alas, it was not to be.

I once again agree with George Carlin.

So, I wasn't going to miss out on another cool magnet toy.

I remember when neodymium magnet started coming out.  I bought a tiny one in a plastic disc from my mineralogy class in college.  The disc was about the size of three dimes stacked together, and open up to give a small disc to hold onto while the other half holding a half centimeter diameter cylinder magnet dangled from a thread.  It was perfect for detecting iron in the samples were had to identify in class.  We found that the magnet was a little stronger than the typical bar magnets, and tended to show minerals were magnet when they had not been described that way in our texts.  Our teacher was a bit surprised, but said to make note of it, and add it to our practice flashcards.

Now I have to get home this weekend, and find where I have that stashed...