1The one thing every magnet has
Every magnet has two different ends
A magnet isn't the same all over. Its pull lives at the ENDS — and the two ends are opposites. Grown-ups call them poles: one is a north end, one is a south end. They always come as a pair.
The two ends
One magnet, two ends. Color the ends so we can tell them apart: red is the north end, blue is the south end.
You can't split them
Snap a magnet in half and you don't get one red and one blue. Each tiny piece grows its OWN red and blue end. There's no such thing as a one-ended magnet.
2Two ways ends can meet
The snap and the shove
Opposite ends, face to face
When a red end faces a blue end — two ends that are different — they reach for each other and clamp tight. That's the snap.
Matching ends, face to face
When the same ends face each other — red to red, or blue to blue — they push away on an invisible cushion. That's the shove. But which one happens? Let's drive it and find out.
3Your turn — drive the magnets
Slide them closer and watch
Two real magnets sit on a frictionless table. Drag the slider to push them toward each other. Watch what the ends do — and notice the pull gets much stronger the closer they get.
4The big test
Flip just one magnet 🔄
Right now, set so the matching ends face each other, the magnets shove apart when they get close. Now you'll flip ONE magnet around, end-for-end — then bring them close again.
Guess before you flip
These two magnets push apart when they're close. You flip just the right one around, end-for-end, and bring them close again. What happens?
5So is the snap always better?
Nope — each one is good at a different job
Opposite ends clamp together hard — perfect for sticking a drawing to the fridge or latching a cabinet shut.
Same ends push on an invisible cushion — strong enough to make a magnet hover with nothing touching it. That's how maglev trains glide.
A magnet isn't just "sticky." It has two opposite ends — and whether two magnets pull together or push apart depends only on which ends are facing. Opposite ends pull; matching ends push.
Psst, grown-ups: every magnet is a dipole — a north pole and a south pole that always come together. Isolated single poles (magnetic monopoles) have never been observed. Like poles repel and unlike poles attract because the force follows the magnetic field lines, which leave the north pole and enter the south. The force grows steeply as the gap shrinks (much faster than gravity's inverse-square falloff for a dipole pair). And if you cut a magnet in half, you don't separate the poles — each piece becomes a complete smaller magnet with its own north and south.