Magnetite was discovered independently in both ancient Greece and China. Anthropoligists think magnetite was put to its first practical use about 2600 BCE. The first practical uses were fasteners and latches. People also liked to do experiments and tricks with them similar to the ones in this book.

Today the most common use for magnets is in motors. Every motor uses either a permanent magnet, an electromagnet or both. Motors operate cars, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, blenders, and computers. Magnetic devices enable music to be recorded and played from plastic tape coated with magnetic particles, and data to be recorded to and read from computer floppy disks. Repelling magnetic forces enable maglev trains to run 480 mph without wheels.

Magnetism is useful in medical imaging devices and particle accelerators. To learn more about magnets, here are some URLs to get you started:

http://gamma.mhpcc.edu/schools/hoala/magnets/history.htm

(chronological history of magnetic discoveries and research)

http://www.ul.ie/~childsp/elements/issue3/rahman.html (includes where magnets are used in modern cars)

http://gamma.mhpcc.edu/schools/hoala/magnets/what.htm (includes electromagnets)

http://www.ee.umd.edu/~taylor/frame1.htm

(biographies of people who did research with magnetism)

1. Franklin, Priestley, Coulomb, Galvani, Volta
2. Laplace, Poisson, Fourier, Ørsted, Ohm, Green
3. Ampère, Biot, Fresnel, Gauss, Weber
4. Faraday, Henry, Lenz
5. Morse, Siemens, Kelvin, Joule, Kirchhoff, Stokes >
6. Maxwell, Rayleigh, Poynting, Bell, Edison
7. Tesla, Westinghouse, Steinmetz, Hertz, Marconi, Popov
8. Michelson, Morley, Heaviside, Lorentz, FitzGerald, Einstein

http://www.execpc.com/magnets/historypage2.html

http://history.hyperjeff.net/electromagnetism.html (history of electromagnetism)

http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW//electric_power_generation.html (on how electricity is made)

http://www.ezprojects.com/index.html? (making a generator from a lawn mower)

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004471/tep/en/how_it_works/generator.html (how a generator works)

http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozscience/m/338410.html (how magnets work)