Bradley McCurtaiu, Age 11, Of Portland, Me., for his question:

What makes a magnet work?     

Pieces of magnetized iron have been found on the ground since ancient times.  Some may have been metallic meteorites, and others may have been 1mps of metal magnetized by dramatic events in the earth's crust.  The Chinese long ago used a sliver from a natural magnet to point out the north direction  and so invented the Compass.     The mystery of the magic of the magnet was not solved until 1907.  The final answer, however, might not have been possible without an idea which was set forth during the 19th century.  A magnet, of course, extends its strange force out beyond the metal bar. This magnetic field is not possible without the solid magnet in the middle.     It is plain, then, that the magnetic force is caused by something inside the solid metal magnet and the solid magnet are made of atoms.  The first idea of the 19th century assumed that magnetism was caused by the individual atoms in the iron magnet. Each atom is a dipole, having two opposite poles like a bar magnet.  Magnetic force, it was thought, occurred when countless atoms were arranged with their north poles pointing in the same direction.     This was not quite accurate, but the idea led to a better idea. We now know that magnetism is caused by domains, or colonies of atoms. It is estimated that there are about 1000 million million atoms in each domain. This is a figure 1 Followed by 15 zeros. There are many of these domains in a small magnet, each one large enough to cover the head of a pin. In the up to date explanation, the magic is performed by the tiny electrons which orbit the nucleus of the atom. The electrons in each domain all spin in a parallel direction. These teeming electrons all spinning in harmony give a bar of metal the magic of magnetism. When the domains of atoms are jostled so that their electrons spin in different directions, the magnet loses its magic.     The number of atoms in even a small magnet is so great that we can make only a guess. There are thousands of pin head sized domains. All these atoms and the domains must be arranged in harmony to create the force of magnetism which extends outside the metal. We can realize that the job of organization is stupendous when we remember that it takes a row of one hundred million iron atoms to measure about one inch  that is a figure 1 followed by eight zeros