Sometimes going unnoticed, but always useful, magnets play a larger role in our everyday lives than most of are aware. We have all seen or used simple giveaways with business names on them, that we use to post things on our refrigerator doors, but they are actually in use in many places we never even think about. They have various functions and roles, and are in use in many sizes and shapes. We do not always realize that we are using an item or appliance with a magnet inside of it. We actually use or benefit from many strong magnets in carrying out our everyday tasks.
In our automobiles, for instance, there are many different kinds of magnets and it is a common place to find many magnets in a single area. Those magnets working in our cars are normally unseen, but play quite an important role in the enjoyment of our driving experiences and operating our cars. All through the car, there are dynamos and electric motors that make use of magnets in the car parts. When a wire coil, for instance, is rotating between sets of strong magnets, it produces electricity for a small electric generator, which is the alternator under the hood. The alternator in turn produces electricity for other automobile parts such as the spark plugs, lights, radio, and the sound system of the car, as they are a major part of the speakers. To produce music and sound as we are driving, electrical currents pass through the strong magnets causing the sound vibrations. Magnets also help to tell us how fast we are driving, because they are used in the speedometers. Most of us would not even know or think about how many magnets are at work in an automobile.
Strong magnets are also found in technologies at work in industry, entertainment and medicine, to name a few. In modern hospital equipment, the magnets are important in Magnetic Resonance Imaging--which we know as MRIs. As strong magnetic fields pass through the body, atomic nuclei inside the body rotates by the pull of strong magnets. The movement and rotation is detected with a scanner that produces visuals of the inside of the body. In this way, tumors, abnormalities and injuries are detected for treatment. Those are just some of the ways that magnets work for us and play a role that we would probably not think about too often, yet they would be greatly missed if they were no longer there. Many items, from appliances to games to equipment, would not function without the help of strong magnets. The more we know about them and their function, the more we appreciate them and their contribution to our daily lives.
