Giant magnetoresistance
Okay, so you know how when you put two magnets close to each other, they either pull towards each other or push away from each other, right? Well, imagine if we could use this magnet power to make something really cool happen in a special kind of metal.
This special metal is called a ferromagnetic material. It’s special because it has a lot of tiny magnets inside of it just like how the big magnets you play with have a north and a south pole. The tiny magnets inside this metal also have a north and south pole, but they’re all scattered around.
Now, a bunch of scientists found out that if they put two pieces of this metal with all the tiny magnets the same way in a certain order (like a sandwich), they would let electricity flow through them differently based on how close the tiny magnets were. Now, they had a way to make a devices that could sense when magnets were near it.
This is called Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR). But that’s a big word, so let’s break it down. “Giant” means it’s really big and “magnetoresistance” means it changes how easily electricity can flow through the metal when there’s a magnet nearby.
So these devices that use GMR can tell us when a magnet is close by because it changes how easily electricity flows in the metal. This is really helpful for things like computer hard drives, where a tiny magnet is used to store information that can then be read by the device that has GMR inside.
Basically, GMR is a way to use tiny magnets inside a special metal to help us know when other magnets are close by, and it’s really helpful for things like computer hard drives.
This special metal is called a ferromagnetic material. It’s special because it has a lot of tiny magnets inside of it just like how the big magnets you play with have a north and a south pole. The tiny magnets inside this metal also have a north and south pole, but they’re all scattered around.
Now, a bunch of scientists found out that if they put two pieces of this metal with all the tiny magnets the same way in a certain order (like a sandwich), they would let electricity flow through them differently based on how close the tiny magnets were. Now, they had a way to make a devices that could sense when magnets were near it.
This is called Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR). But that’s a big word, so let’s break it down. “Giant” means it’s really big and “magnetoresistance” means it changes how easily electricity can flow through the metal when there’s a magnet nearby.
So these devices that use GMR can tell us when a magnet is close by because it changes how easily electricity flows in the metal. This is really helpful for things like computer hard drives, where a tiny magnet is used to store information that can then be read by the device that has GMR inside.
Basically, GMR is a way to use tiny magnets inside a special metal to help us know when other magnets are close by, and it’s really helpful for things like computer hard drives.