Level 6: Fields

Electricity and magnetism · level 6 of 8 · rough age 13-14 (a guide for parents; anyone can start anywhere)

Charges and magnets push and pull without touching, through a field that fills the space around them. This level draws and measures electric and magnetic fields, uses Coulomb's law, and looks at the field round the Earth. Then it turns to Mars, whose global field died billions of years ago but left magnetized rocks behind, and to the green aurora a rover saw fill the Martian night sky.

Lesson	You will be able to
Electric fields	Use \(E = F/q\) and \(E = V/d\), and draw field lines
Coulomb's law	Find the force between two charges
Magnetic fields	Draw the field of a magnet and compare field strengths in tesla
Earth's magnetic field	Describe Earth's field and what a compass really points to
The lost field of Mars	Explain what Mars's magnetized rocks tell us about its past
Auroras	Explain auroras on Earth and on Mars

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