Randy Lewis, age 9, of Boise, Idaho, for his question:

Are magnets made or found in the ground?

All magnets are full of tricks that seem like magic. Small magnets are strong enough to hang a pot holder on the side of a stove. Giant magnets can lift loads of iron or send electricity through our wires. Giant magnets are man made, but some small magnets are found in the ground.

The story of magnets is very old. Some people say it was started by a shepherd boy named Magnes. Others say that it began near the olden town of Magnesia in Asia Minor. In any case, the magnets were not made by man. They were smallish dark stones found lying on the ground. People noticed them because they clung to iron and other metals. Magnes carried a long crook with an iron tip. When he put the long hooked crook on the ground, a little magnet stone stuck to the metal.

There are still magnets to be found in the ground if you know just how to look for them. A heavy dark stone called magnetite acts just like a magnet. It is a natural magnet made by Mother Nature and here and there we can find layers of magnetite in the ground. Meteors are falling stars and sometimes one of them lands on the ground with a thud. The grounded meteor is called a meteorite. It looks like an ordinary stone or rock and sometimes it happens to be a natural magnet.

These natural magnets were very puzzling. For ages people thought they were magic stones. It took a long, long time for them to learn all the magic tricks in a magnet. And as they learned, they figured how a magnet could be useful. The Chinese noticed what happens when a needle of a magnet hangs on a string. One end always swings

Around to point to the north. They used this magnet trick to invent the compass.

A few men of science went on testing the tricks in the magnet. Some also tested another magic trick called electricity. And some began to see that the magic of the magnet was related to the magic of electricity. An electric current acts like a magnet and a magnet can be used to make an electric current. When people learned this, they knew how to make magnets for themselves. They wound coils of electric wire around an iron core. A giant man. made magnet of this kind is used to send electric current humming from the generator to our homes.

Games that teach you things are always fun. And you can learn a lot by playing with two toy magnets. Each magnet has a north pole and a south pole end. The north poles of two magnets spring away from each other and so do the south poles. But a north pole and south pole pull together and cling to each other. Magnet tricks are catching. You may learn how to charge a tired little magnet or to make a new one from a bar of plain iron.