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Wire Whisk Magnetosphere Manipulative

Ben Wentworth - Tactile Learning Adventures

Earth's magnetic flux lines are not only invisible to blind individuals but also to people with full eyesight. Sighted individuals can witness magnetic lines through the use of metal filings and a magnet. However, even pictures like the one to the right still leave some sighted people unable to visualize the earth as a large magnet. Blind individuals have the added disadvantage of not even being able to view the picture.

A two dimensional tactile graphic such as the one to the left prepared on swell paper will allow the blind individual to visualize the picture in their mind's eye. However, this still does not convey the magnetic field and the effect of the solar wind with respect to the earth.

A combination of various wire whisks and a hot glue gun can be used to create three dimensional magnetospheres. I visited three different culinary stores before I located a whisk with a free moving wire sphere and solid metal ball inside it for the type of magnetosphere I wanted to construct.

I removed the small sphere with the metal ball and attached it to one side of the sphere with hot glue.

The side of the sphere holding the metal "earth" is now glued onto the whisk with the wooden handle.

I chose the wooden handled whisk because it was a large whisk and illustrated the elongation of the Earth's magnetic field on the lee side of the solar wind direction extremely well.

By spreading a couple of the wires on the sphere with the metal ball, a blind person can place their finger inside to feel the spatial relationship of the Earth to its magnetic fields. The one problem I had with the wire sphere and ball was that the wires were too thick to just bend in on one side to illustrate the pushing effect of the solar wind. For this reason it might be better to try and make your own port side magnetic field if you have the time.

  

However, this particular combination will work quite effectively to create a three dementional model of the effects the solar wind has on the Earth's magnetosphere. Wire coat hangers and a cork ball could also be used to create your own magnetoshpere from scratch. This would be cheaper and you could shape the magnetic lines to exactly represent regular solar wind effects or those of a CME. A great Folding Paper Model of the Magnetosphere activity can be found at http://www.phy6.org/Education/wfold.html. By filling in the Earth with puff paint and putting hot glue on the magnetic lines, this activity is easily followed by blind individuals.