Repulsing, non-touching magnets are used instead of colliding balls to make a new type of Newton’s cradle. The new cradle can act in a similar way to a regular cradle, but can also exhibit other interesting behaviour. Explain and study the movement of this magnetic cradle.

Background reading from IYPT reference kit

Newton Cradle vs Magnet Cradle Efficiency (youtube, Active Kinetic 1, 21.09.2024), https://youtu.be/OZ8mcqEwvNA 8 Маятник Станислава ‣ Магнитные Шары Ньютона‣ Неодимовые магниты и Колыбель Ньютона (youtube, Магнит и Магнетизм, 14.03.2023), https://youtu.be/xS9fMuX3KTw Magnetic Newton's Cradle (youtube, physicsfun shorts, 12.06.2021), https://www.youtube.com/shorts/55iWsHvgFaM Магнитный маятник Ньютона Станислава на 3D принтере Забавная физическая игрушка Игорь Белецкий (youtube, Igor Beletskiy, 24.12.2019), https://youtu.be/62HPBz0PBGw First ever magnetic newtons cradle (youtube, Beau, 14.04.2019), https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0Lv06seZFfE Magnetic Newton's Cradle (youtube, physicsfun, 20.05.2017), https://youtu.be/-T00RDWg-6I Wikipedia: Newton's cradle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_cradle Wikipedia: Force between magnets, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_between_magnets Wikipedia: Magnetic dipole, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_dipole Wikipedia: Magnetization, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetization Wikipedia: Neodymium magnet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet Wikipedia: Eddy current, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current

*H. Lorenz, S. Kohler, A. Parafilo, M. Kiselev, and S. Ludwig. Visualized wave mechanics by coupled macroscopic pendula: Classical analogue to driven quantum bits. Sci. Rep. 13, 18386 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45118-y, arXiv:2207.09296 [quant-ph] *A. Rakcheev and A. M. Läuchli. Dynamics of a pair of magnetic dipoles with nonreciprocal interactions due to a moving conductor. Phys. Rev. B 106, 17, 174435 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.174435 *L. García-Raffi, L. Salmerón-Contreras, N. Jiménez, M. Ahmed, V. Sánchez-Morcillo, R. Picó, and J. Archilla. Nonlinear waves in a chain of magnetically coupled pendula. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 34,1, 045037 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0000915 *F. M. Russell, Y. Zolotaryuk, J. C. Eilbeck, and T. Dauxois. Moving breathers in a chain of magnetic pendulums. Phys. Rev. B 55, 10, 6304-6308 (1997), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.55.6304 *T. Lee, M. Leok, and N. McClamroch. Lagrangian mechanics and variational integrators on twospheres (2007), arXiv:0707.0022 [math.NA] How to make a magnetic Newton's cradle (education.theiet.org), https://education.theiet.org/primary/teaching-resources/how-to-make-a-magnetic-newtons-cradle How to make a magnetic Newton's cradle (stem.org.uk, 2019), https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/elibrary/resource/446804/how-make-magnetic-newtonscradle Force between two magnets (TechDroid, May 8, 2019), https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/478810/force-between-two-magnets

TYPT Supplementary References

BBC Bitesize – What is a magnet: Video explaining what magnets are and how they work, with supporting video. https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/zpvcrdm

YouTube - Magnetic Newton’s cradle: Video showing an example of a Newton’s cradle made using magnets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T00RDWg-6I

IET Education Resources – Magnet Madness: Lesson activities and resources focussing on magnets and magnetism. https://education.theiet.org/secondary/teaching-resources/magnet-madness/