Help with supposedly easy metal sphere and magnet problem?

A metal sphere hangs by a thread. When the north pole of a bar magnet is brought near, the sphere is strongly attracted to the magnet, as shown in the figure. Then the Magnet is reversed and its south pole is brought near the sphere. How does the sphere respond?





a. It is strongly repelled by the magnet.





b. It is weakly repelled by the magnet.





c. It is strongly attracted to the magnet.





d. It is weakly attracted to the magnet.





e. It doesn’t respond.

Help with supposedly easy metal sphere and magnet problem?
c. Its strongly attracted to the magnet. It dosnt matter what pole of the magnet you use. A non-magnetic sphere will always be attracted to it.
Reply:I know what the questioner wants you to say, but I can think of ways to build a sphere that would NOT react this way...





The real answer is "With the information givin there is no correct answer:...BUT here's what they want...





The sphere must be a feerous material (attracted to a magnet), so when the opposite pole is brought near, the object (sphere) will still be attracted to the magnet. They want you to say choive "c"...BUT they are not professional scientists...





I could build a sphere that is magnetic, by melting down iron and casting it into a shere and while it is "setting", i.e., "solidifying" by cooling, I put it into a STRONG electromagnetic field, thus making a magnet (or magneto as we called them 1,000,000 years ago when I was a student).





Now our freshly manufactued magnet has a north and south pole. If I bring the south pole of another magnet near, the two will attract, BUT if I bring the opposite pole near it, the opposite poles will repell.





This is not a great question, but let's face it, the people who write science books are not the best scientists. The best scientists are either teaching at a university or are researchers in industry at a top think tank.





I believe that they (whovere they are) who pick out text books for out kids should hire really top notch scientists to write them so that the science you learn is correct and exciting, not half baked and wrong much of the time. Shame on society!!





--Fred