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Two thousand years is a long time. Really long. So you might
not be surprised to hear that scientists now know tons more
about how magnets work.
Do you knowwhat they found? It turns out that magnetism
and electricity have a whole lot in common. Believe it or not,
whizzing, whirling, speeding, swirling electrons are the
microscopic magic behind both electricity and magnetism.
All electrons move in two ways. They whiz around the
nucleus
. And they spin in circles. In most objects, half of the
electrons in each atom spin
one way, and half spin the
other way. But in some objects,
most of the electrons spin in
the
same direction. That
motion
makes
the object
magnetic.
Solving the
Mystery
